Words in the Wind
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Words in the Wind
By Mark D. Stucky
Winds carried away the words
that Jesus, the Word made flesh,
wrote in the dust,
while sitting near a trembling woman,
who was the accused,
who was bait in a trap.
“Adultery! Law! Stone! Death!”
Harsh words hurled by vigilantes,
hushed by the breath of a single sentence,
“Let the person who is without sin hurl the first stone.”
Words from the only one who was without sin,
and the only one who did not condemn.
As accusers slunk away,
he wrote more in the dust.
What were those ephemeral words,
mysteries lost to history?
A list of the accusers’ hypocrisies?
Words of justice and mercy?
Ashes to ashes. Words to dust.
In our dustbins of history,
what do we ourselves write?
What will sum up our lives’ words
before they are lost to the world?
Words of division, judgment, and hate?
Words of healing, mercy, and grace?
Will our words hurled
into the world,
resemble swords to wound
or salve to heal?
Will our words, blown by the wind,
be words written without sin?
(First published in Clay Jar Review, 17 Aug. 2022. This poem ponders the mystery of what words Jesus wrote in the dust as recorded in John 8:1-11. See also my poems “Margin of Error,” “Weapons of Wonder,” and “What Would Jesus Tweet?”)
(Image by HG-Fotografie on Pixabay.com.)
Copyright © Mark Stucky | Year Posted 2023
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