PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Look at the afternoon sky:  bad weather

must be approaching.  Be that as it may,

let us continue with our lunch.  You asked

if I have ever seen a miracle.

I witnessed one, though skeptic scoffers have

attempted to reduce it to a trick,

but anyone who knows the details of

the situation would become convinced

that only a miraculous action

could have improved the circumstances of

the situation.  And this I propose

to tell you, now.  (The sky has grown quite dim:

the sea's surface no longer sparkles and

has become utterly still---not one wave.

Have you ever seen this happen before?

We certainly live in a strange era---

strange conversations about strange events,

and nagging doubts are every stronger than

they were before, and greater Faith becomes

an absolute necessity.  I know

you are a first year medical student

so you will surely understand the dire

impact and implications of these facts

that I shall tell you now.  I traveled from

Egypt's great city, Alexandria,

to this land to learn more about a man

of whom I had heard spoken of among

scholars who studied ancient prophecy

in the great library the Ptolemies

had raised up for their love of learning and

books of all kind (and most especially

the many forms and tales that Poetry

presented).  From Joppa, I was advised

to seek a rabbi out of Nazareth,

who had performed some miracles and taught

not like the Pharisees and Sadducees

(with all of their incessant bickering

about the most miniscule of details),

but like one of the ancient Prophets who

heard and conveyed the true and holy words

given unto them by the Hebrew's God.

Not finding him at home in Nazareth,

I went, from there, to the vicinity

of a small town, not very well known---Nain.

The rabbi I sought, who was called Jesus,

was now expected to visit the place.

So I, too, walked there.  And as I arrived,

a funeral procession crossed my path:

and on the bier, a body covered by

a winding sheet (even the face concealed):

a young man, who had died during the full

bloom of his adolescence.  "Murdered, if

"you ask me," said the man standing next to

me.  "And his widowed mother's only son.

"His name was Neaniskos, and he was---

"most certainly---the most beautiful boy

"in all of Galilee:  with slender frame

"and waist-length curls and ringlets; and his eyes

"and smile expressed the way he wanted to

"love and be loved."  I asked, "What happened to

"him to be slain?"  Wiping his tears, the man

swallowed hard, and, in a rasping voice,

said this:  "Two nights ago, two haters of

"his beauty had approached him cunningly,

"and asked him to accompany them on

"a leisurely and pleasant walk around

"Nain's edges.  That would not take long,

"considering how small the village is.

"Then, somehow, they persuaded him to go

"with them a little further out, among

"the fields.  Beside an ancient, broken fence,

"they must have beaten him relentlessly

"and without mercy.  Breaking---smashing---bone,

"and mutilating his beautiful face

"(which, I suspect, was the whole point of their

"grim motivation.  They bound him upon

"those weathered, wooden planks and left him there

"to die, alone, beneath the moon and stars.

"he was found, just at dawn yesterday, by

"a passing neighbor:  just a little life

"remained in him, despite his injuries,

"although he never regained consciousness.

"He was brought to his mother's home to die

"in her arms; and he was her only child.

"Someone said that the thugs had even made

"off with his sandals---which he rarely wore

"in town; here he preferred to be barefoot:

"that fit in with his personality.

"His body was so mutilated and

"broken that we thought it best to cover

"him altogether that the damage done

"to him should not be the last memory

"of him that most of us should have.  I saw

"his corpse uncovered, nor shall I forget

"the horrible extent of what they did

"to him, out there.  How much he must have begged

"them to desist, how much he must have screamed

"in agony as those bastards tortured

"him, then abandoned him to die

"alone out there.  At least we found

"him and brought him home so that he could die

"in the peace of his weeping mother's arms."

Just as he said that, the procession stopped,

for Jesus and some of his friends had just

entered Nain.  And, for the first time, I saw

his---Jesus'---face.  And, I pray to God

to bless me that I never shall forget

the great compassion expressed on that face

when he, Jesus, looked on the widow's grief,

the mother bereft of her only child,

her son---abducted, slain---by evil men,

haters and thugs, uncouth and prejudiced.

And for what purpose, to what end was that

young man's life taken from him in that way?

(Look how the sky is now entirely black---

without the least light of sun, moon, or stars.)

Then Jesus put his hand upon the bier,

and said, gently but firmly in a voice

that, hearing, I believed could give commands

to sun, moon and stars and they would obey.

He said, "Young man, I say to you arise."

And, in response, the body underneath

the cloth began to move, and then sat up---

without the least sign of an injury,

no bruises, nor flesh wounds, no shattered limbs.

Yes . . . I myself witnessed the miracle,

and that young man, that Neaniskos, lived,

and breathed, and spoke, and was given back to

his mother.  As for Jesus, he just smiled

and stepped back quietly, because he had

not come to seek the gathered crowd's acclaim

but simply to restore a taken life,

a life that cruel intruders had destroyed.

But even with the sky above us---dark,

foreboding; and the sea utterly still---

a light glows in my soul as I declare

to you, Luke, this great miracle that I

witnessed with my own eyes and ears in Nain. 

Starward

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