"The Black Bronco"

 A-Poem-a-Day Until Resurrection Day

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

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[1] “Were You There” was likely composed by African-American slaves in the 19^th century. It was first published in William Eleazar Barton’s 1899 “Old Plantation Hymns.”