Poeticdiplo

The Saturday Silence

 

Don’t ask me to speak of victory.

Don’t ask of me a song;

don’t demand a shout.

My praise today is quiet.

There is no victory in the violence

I have just witnessed.

 

He, to whom I gave all I had—

mind, heart, trade, and time—

He, whom I knew was the One,

is gone.

Hung like a thief on a Roman cross,

upon the Hill of Bones.

 

Peter is gone. The Zebedees are home.

Thomas has gone back to the sea.

Forward is not a way I can see,

yet y’all ask for a song?

A shout of praise from me?

 

It is Passover, I know.

But I feel like I have lost the Lamb.

My praise today is a question:

What could I have done differently?

The mist clouds my eyes.

 

Today is Saturday,

the day after the Passover.

Yesterday, I believed in victory,

but in the silence of today—

don’t ask of me a song.

Don’t demand from me a shout.

 

He didn’t seem to hear

our cries of Hosanna.

And maybe, just maybe...

there is no victory today.