Today’s Lenten Meditation
A-Poem-a-Day
Until Resurrection Day
 |
| Image credit: biblestudytools.com |
THE BLACK BRONCO
Good Friday, 2002
Discontented
sad, somewhat guilty…
Usually I’d have found time
in the afternoon
to sit meditatively
and ponder the significance
of this day
Sometimes I wrote poems
or sat quietly in a church
I might have listened
to a radio preacher
or just sung, soulfully
about the house
that old, haunting hymn chorus
“O sometimes it causes me
to tremble…tremble…tremble”[1]
Eased into the day, holy
with a long, tepid bath
and a little book
about six miracles of Calvary –
Began contemplating the darkness
that fell upon the land
for three hours
but after that
the cares of this world
sent me scurrying helter-skelter
scrubbing the kitchen floor
returning curtains to JC Penney
grocery shopping for Easter dinner
Any meaningful reflections faded
in my slide from Mary to Martha
Returning from an errand, edgy
I was stopped at a light
on Union Boulevard
Don’t know what kind of a car
was in front of me
but in front of that car
was a black Bronco
On back of the Bronco
black on black was
the Crucifixion
Jesus, dying
in utter darkness
His head bent
shoulders thrust forward
like so many paintings I’ve seen
What was this?
After a moment, I realized
it was merely a reflection—
a silhouette cast by the shadow
of a telephone pole
and street lamp…
But it seemed real
I looked at the clock
It was 2:45
I drive up and down
Union Boulevard
day after day
year after year
but it was this day
this hour
this moment of need
He chose
to show me
yet again
all He did
for me
Maude Carolan
[1] “Were You There” was likely composed by African-American slaves in the 19th century. It was first published in William Eleazar Barton’s 1899 “Old Plantation Hymns.”
No comments:
Post a Comment