PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

I thought that Stephen had an angel's face
(especially when speaking of the Grace
of Christ) and long cascades of soft, coifed hair.
He seemed---seems---to me the most beautiful
boy I had ever seen, and his sweet soul
more than his wretched murderers could bear.
Some decades old now, memories unfurl
around your kind request that I speak of
his words and faith.  I was, then, a young girl,
and he and I experienced first love
(with all of its delights)---chastely!---together.
He showed me how our Christian faith is better
than our ancestors'---not as a rejection
of theirs, but in a flowering to perfection.
I wonder though, were he not martyred, whether
he might have written all that in a letter
to edify the church, or bring correction
to errors that, as we both know, deceived
those who have drawn back:  as if to erase
their hope, as if they never had believed.
Forgetting some of it, do I recall
that Stephen might have known your old friend, Paul?
 
Starward
 
[jlc]