John Caselberg

Three Poems

1
Dear child,
Pray to the Old Star
For your mother and father
And your own fear.

Pray for the sick ones
With no candles, no light,
And the lone, wan souls by the window
Staring at the night...

And pray for the lonelier
Who creep into bed
With never a thought of the Old Star
Or a glance overhead.

2
Two white spun clouds
Came wreathing through the sky;
I touched them with a gentle kiss
As they went whirling by.

Two white spun clouds
Were drifting through the sky;
A gentle rain was on my lips
When they had swept away.

3
"Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."

—Matthew 26, 10.

He came
With eye of love and flame
And was tended by a woman.

O eternal woman!
Bend low
Above the feet softer than the softness of your brow
But harder than the desert scorpion trodden in their pain.

Her black hair brushed
Holy skin,
And his white feet were washed for us
By a kneeling woman.

Knowledge sad
She bent her head
And bathed the dead ...

He took our Sin
With eye of love and flame
Anointed by a woman.