THE CRUMBS OF HEALING [Sa, 4-25-20]

Christ In Winter-Reflections on Faith & Life for the Times of Winter

THE CRUMBS OF HEALING  [Sa, 4-25-20]

I should conserve

the scattered little

crumbs of healing

energy that remain

to me in case

I must fight

the virus

While I sit at the table

reserved for those

whose fronts are

spattered with the years

of dropping crumbs

to find one’s way

into the past

I should sweep them off, the crumbs,

off the table into my hand

as from the remains

of a round loaf

dill bread

drop them

into my shirt pocket

my good plaid shirt

have them ready

for the day

of the covid

but then comes

that desperate mother

foreign in dress and tongue

begging Jesus

to ignore the laws

of race and purity

just this once for the sake

of her little girl

let her be like a dog

under the table

licking up the crumbs

of healing

so I sweep them down

the crumbs not

into my own hand

but to that mother

holding her child

so close

below this table

of the nearly dead

I know what it is

to yearn for healing

for a child

John Robert McFarland

Mt. 15:21-28.