A Poem for Lent...
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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.”
"Behold the Lamb...poetically"
by Maude Carolan Pych
is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
www.maudecarolanpych.net
maudecpych@gmail.com
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