baltimoreblackwoman

Maundy Thursday

Am I lost
Am I found
Am I saved
Am I drowned

Last night
Holy Thursday
I observed
The 2nd night
Of Passover.

A last-minute invitation
From a friend.
I had no other plans.
So I joined in
On the Zoom call.

Following the Haggadah
On a pdf.

Drinking green tea
In place of wine.
Eating taco chips
In place of matzoh.

The wind howled
Through my windows
As the host
Opened the door
For Elijah.

The host’s father explained
Why the door is opened.
Why the empty wine glass
Is set on the table:

Elijah is the messenger
Of the coming of
The Promised Messiah.

Only if
Only when
The Messiah is nigh
Will Elijah enter
That open door.

In my faith,
Elijah has already returned.

Our Messiah dies
On Good Friday
And Rises Again
In defeat of Death
On Easter Sunday.

How, then, to reconcile
That the Jewish hope
Is my savior

While my Jewish friends –
God’s Chosen –
Still Wait for Him?

Then, again,
We still await
The Second Coming
Of Christ.

Good Friday 2020

I slept
Through the Solemn Hours
between Noon and 3pm

Where, once,
I would have been
seated on a hard pew
in church
absorbing the homilies
on The Seven Last Words.

Many years,
the weather
marked the Hours:

Gray sky,
Howling winds–
once approaching
tornadic strength;
Sometimes, rain,
Heavy and sheeting.

Always giving way
To a clear blue sky.

Until today.

While I slept,

The winds howled.
The winds cried, “Mary…”
The winds screamed, “Mercy…”

Only now,
In this 8pm hour,
Now that I’m awake,
have they ceased.

Good Friday/Passover/Easter (April 19, 2019)

Last night, I slept
with one window
open wide
to lull me
to Rest
after days of Torment.

I awoke at Noon,
my body if not my mind,
Refreshed.

Today is Good Friday,
the Terrible Day
Our Lord Jesus
was crucified
on the Cross.

Today is Passover,
the day Our Lord Jesus
also remembered
God’s Saving Grace
from the hands of the Oppressor
who threatened
his people’s
very Lives.

How is it, then,
that I feel Love for
Christians and Jews
equally,
But with no allegiance
to either’s
History/Religion/Culture?

Reverence? Yes.
But not allegiance.

My God Is
Greater than all
our frail human piety.

He Is The One
Who made us All.
Who gave us myriad
windows
wide open
through which to
see and know Him.

Who are we
to believe that
the view we are given
is the Only True one?

May we all
Praise Our God
in Unison,

Amen.

~~~~~~~

About these poems: “Maundy Thursday” and “Good Friday 2020” were written today. “Good Friday/Passover/Easter” was written last year and was previously published on baltimoreblackwoman.com.