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At The Guard's Testimony
[after the Four Evangelists' Easter accounts]
Some thing came down to roll the rock away:
a minor god, or some winged messenger.
My mind was nearly numbed, but did not play
tricks that dramatic (of that, I was sure).
Then it sat casually upon the stone's
top, and I felt (first time in my life) fear,
crossing my flesh and down into my bones.
Then came some women from Jerusalem.
I knew the barefoot youngest one of them---
Herod's nubile stepdaughter, Salome,
whose dance had cost some prophet's life . . . and head.
"Why seek the living Lord among the dead?"
the messenger, whose voice was gentle, asked.
"See where he once lay; but no longer here."
His glow illumined them. In joy, they basked
as their eyes verified the emptied tomb
(and far too empty ever to presume
some other cause, much as the priests now dread;
unto the swine they cannot cast this pearl.)
Then, as the women left, the dancing girl,
on grass-stained feet, looked at us with a sneer.
Starward
[jlc]
