Tsunami

Today is Good Friday, and we have a post by guest blogger Sister Josue Behnen who offers a poem that ties together the various tsunamis being experienced throughout the world.

TSUNAMI
 by Josue Behnen, OSB


--in memory of Japan, March 2011

   I
Like little toy cars, the two-inch kind,
they bounced up onto the next level of land,
houses like little match-boxes, cracking and crumbling,
over roads washed open like spring brooklets,
all tumbling on top of each other,

wonder how the people… the
babies and
those on the roads, caught
in the houses, cars,
that last minute when swept away, were, with
their angst ten meters deep.


    II

Like a tidal wave, rebels pour out
into the streets of Libya, Egypt,
Yemen, Wisconsin, flood the roads with
cries and shouts, scream for help
to breathe under the weight of
heavy hands, beg in earnest, and like a wave
lashing, demand an ear
that will listen.



     III

One more time, this Good Friday
we will hear how the earth shook, shuddered,
heaved and bolted tearing a temple curtain
from top to bottom,
how the axis of the earth -- stunned and shocked --
shifted
when Jesus’ dying blood gushed forth
for all, to this day.