July 31, 2020

AT TIMES

DURING THE HIDDEN YEARS

At times he looked around

the carpenter shop. His eyes

and his thoughts stopped at

hammers, saws and pliers ….

Oh! To be as simple as they are

or to be like a chair or a door

or like that empty cross he saw

on the main road into town

yesterday – that coarse cross –

that that held a screaming man  

who  died during the night before.

He wondered if the prophets within

him were saying you’ll have your

turn or sneak out now and go down

the road with your pliers in hand

and unnail this man and set

him free – but there were those two

soldiers guarding and taunting him.

Then – at times - in the market

place he saw life as wheat and

fish hooks - nets and needles –

or he would slip into the synagogue

and if there was nobody there he

would walk up front and unroll

a scroll of Isaiah or Jeremiah and

run his fingers over the words –

until they entered his flesh - 

but what really refreshed him

were walks into the hills or down

to the waters of Galilee where

he learned from the birds of the air

and the grapes on the vine and

the house of the father waiting for

his son to come home as he wondered

when it was his time to leave home

and finally head for far countries.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020