"who touched me?"

We didn’t lay hands
like the badly bleeding woman
on the hem of Your garment
to take love from Your love.

You did not feel
power coming out of You
because we did not touch
Your bleeding wounds
(which are the wounds of Your brothers)
so that vital force of Your blood
could be transfused
into our being.

Without sap
how can the barren tree
of our life bear fruit?

...............................................

But we are enjoying
the jubilation of our self-deception:
engrossed in our thick tomes
swept away
by our most serious spiritual uplift
convinced by the muddled confirmations
of the value of “sacrifice”
You did not ask us for
and ignorant of “mercy”,
we are deluded by the idea
that we are moving along
the road to our salvation.

23 Aug. 2004