A young man in the
spring of life
Having trained hard
to become
A newly minted soldier under
Herod’s reign
Eagerly anticipates
his first orders
Will there be a
skirmish in the streets
A protest, riots, or
war, or just some
Squabble from those
called Jews?
His orders come in
the dead of night
There are no details
for now
Only to ride hard and
fast to reinforce
Fellow soldiers
waiting on the outskirts
Of some little town
Where trouble is sure
to be found.
Eager anticipation
fills his youthful mind
As he rides onward
with the troops
Toward the unknown
enemy
Arriving in the
little town only to find it
Peacefully quiet
under the mantle of moon and stars
Questions running
through his head
Stealth of the enemy
he may come to dread.
The orders are given
Kill only the infant
males under two
Don’t look at their
faces
Don’t hear there
cries or look in the mothers eyes
Move swift, move fast
Block out their
groans
To refuse means your
own life to give.
Blood and cries the
city wide
Long could be heard
under those dark skies
The lights of the
moon and stars
Dimmed with souls so
fleeting
Now gone.
But gone from him
The soldier grim?
The babes, the eyes
of the mothers
Wide within give no
Reprieve from this
mortal sin
Give no reprieve from
the mortal sin.
Determined yet to
bury his visions
He grows to manhood
of the toughest sort
Always pushed by the
memories
Of innocent lives cut
short
As if to atone for
the child he was
His leathery face
hides his heart now stone.
The soldier now
married a lovely maid
But her firstborn, 'twas a son she gave
In the cold of a
winter his cries pierced the night
But the sounds of
this child
Made his soul take
flight
And all the cries of
those innocents then
Came back in a rush
Innocents taken by
armored men.
He heard their cries
accusing his soul
The mother’s eyes
from long ago
Would never leave his
daily thoughts
And for thirty years
his mind did haunt
Til the day he saw
Her
The Mother of Him
The Mother of Him.
She followed Him with
each step
She mirrored every
step He took
The soldier had his
orders to follow
Those Jews would
surely riot
And his unit had its
duty.
To disobey would be
his life to give.
But those eyes, those
Mother’s eyes
Brought to his mind
the mothers
Eyes from so long
ago.
He had to do his duty
He had to do his duty
There could be no
reprieve for him.
The soldier now could
have no peace
Three days past
without sleep
And on the third day
as he started to drift
The earth did rumble
And the earth could
not keep
The dead from arising
Those who’d gone
before to the
Place of waiting
They sprang from the
earth to testify
To the people of town
They would swiftly
fly.
The soldier arose to
a vision of sorts
Giving life to the
children whose lives had been taken
By his sword decades
past
And the mothers, the
mothers who looked
New in his eyes, with
a look he had seen
Just three days past
had it been?
Could the eyes he had
seen with this Mother anew
Bring hope to his
soul
And from the ashes of
decades of death
Heal the pain
The heart of stone?
Could he lay down his
weapons that
Built his façade?
Could he find this
Mother
And make Her his Own?
Could She lead him
back to innocence?
To Her son
To Her Son?
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