flower girl (from a photo taken in the UK)

always
looking for flowers
to pluck
to make a bouquet
fresh
for mommy,
daddy, mamma, meme,
naomi, auntie, a papa…
or
whoever is near.

i think she sees them
in her head long
before
her eyes rest on them.

then all that is necessary
is finding the place
her heart
has already seen
so
she can do the thing
her heart
has already done…
give itself
away.

so real
are her flower-visions
that her little sister has
learned
to see with the same
eyes.

the day after (Luke 24)

do we have it
backwards,
Lord?

we make a big deal about going
into easter celebration
remembering,
like You told us to:
Your body
broken...
Your blood poured
out...
all of this...for us!

but
on that first easter sunday...
was the REAL deal
what came next?

sunday afternoon, monday,
tuesday?

on sunday...
the women came looking to
bury You
in decency...Your
mom among them still
not believing that You
could be gone...

the formerly-demonized-mary
wept
so without hope
that You came to her
and
called her by name.

we apostles did not
believe
the women's tales of angelic
assurances of You
ALIVE...
just as you had said
so cryptically
so many times in our hearing.

or maybe You weren't being
mysterious
after all?!?

peter & john ran to
see what happened...
they returned still uncertain.

we were confused...
You were ALIVE...
NOTHING would EVER be the
same
as before.

YOU...
the I AM God of Israel
had come among us
living
and dying so like us...
loving
so UNLIKE us...and
now LIVING again.

never to die.

what does a person do
with that?

He is risen

He is risen.

the first person to say
those words
spoke to grief stricken women
who came to give you
what any mother would want for
her dead child…
a decent burial.

but there was no
body
to treat…
there were no
guards
of which to ask permission…

it was as if
You had never died…
but
you DID die…
awfully
in public
for all to see
with
so much blood
at the end

they made a public end of
Your life…
another celebration of power
over grace…
or so we thought.

yet
in Your dying
it was as if no one else
existed
other than You and Your Abba…
we thought You
delirious
david’s terrifying psalm
written
from captivity was on Your
lips…
then You called your mother
and john
giving them a life together…
an elder son
to care for her needs…
and a new mother for john
(so young)
to love and respect.

then You were done.

or so we thought.

You had only begun to
fight…
to change the cosmos.

we did not know
Who You were
or
what You were about.

so we grieved
without hope.

until You spelled it out
for us.