The Carpenter
I was just wondering....
What was the first job you were given
By Joseph in the carpenter's shop
Were you set to sweeping floors
Cleaning hidden corners with a broom,
To remove the shavings
Of the wood your father's lathe
Had pared?
Did you ever make a manger out of wood
To hold the animals' food
Remembering how Mary had laid you in one
Within the stable adjacent to the fully occupied inn
So that we would know that humble vessels
Can be used for divine purposes
Even containing the incarnate Son of God
Did you at one time
Get sawdust in your eyes
And know pain and discomfort
The inability to see
So that later you would teach
That those with planks in their eyes
Should not criticise those with mere specks?
Did you hang the sign outside the shop
Advertising yokes made here are easy-
Well-fitted to the individual animal
For whom it had painstakingly been made
Knowing that one day
You would invite people to come to you
For their tailor-made yoke
Which would make their burden seem light?
Was there ever a time
When you held nails and wood
In calloused carpenter's hands
In the knowledge that one day
One would fix you to the other
And in doing so
the wholly innocent
Would suffer death
For the sins of all mankind?
I was just wondering
Anne Linington
copyright September 2008
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