The day after Good Friday
What was it like? After the death?
For those who had followed?
For those who had cared?
For those who had been so close?
For his mother, who had pondered the meaning of his life for so long, was it what she expected?
For Mary, his sister, who had followed him and loved him.
For Mary of Magdala, who had loved him, cared for him, followed him well.
Did the women who had bravely remained beneath the cross
Cling to each other?
Did they lean on one another, weep together?
Did they wonder what to do and where to go?
Did they wonder if any one would believe them
When they told of the man they loved for those who followed after.
For those left of the twelve, with doubts and fears, rudderless now and shaken by guilt.
What was it like for them?
Did they burn with anger for the one who had told?
Did they wish they had had the strength to stay?
Did they retreat into themselves, with wounded hearts?
Did they run away in fear.
Did they cling to each other in grief and loss
Wondering where to go?
And what did they do when the tomb was open
With no sign of their beloved?
Did they believe he was come again?
That he had not truly been dead?
Did they understand something or nothing?
Did they take to the road
To leave behind the holy city
With its memories of palm leaves and death
Of wine and bread and companionship?
Somewhere in the thread of history
Something of these close companions
Whispered beads onto the thread of time
And prayerful fingers held the beads
And joyful hands passed them on
And over time the beads became worn
And the pattern once so sharp
Was lost
But the beads of love were held and then
From hand to hand
Through all the ages in between
They came,
The remnants of their story
Still there. And
Added too and amended
To fill the space that once the pattern told
Still found the hearts of those who
Reached to take the beads
To keep them holy.
And remember.
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