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In celebration of this Saturday's book launch of "Mary's Dust" by Melinda Mueller with music by Lori Goldston, we're going to post a week of Marys from the book. It is a Small Press Distribution "Handpicked" selection: 20% off here: goo.gl/T3R1BX or ask for it at your local bookstore!
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THE REPENTANT MAGDALEN
Oil on canvas, Georges de La Tour, circa 1640
How have we not seen it, what she did,
What she and the other women
Must have done? They are gathered
On that Sabbath night, still flayed with grief
And horror—though not, it must be said,
With fear, knowing themselves safe in their
Insignificance. Whereas the men, elsewhere,
Hiding, have ample cause to be afraid. The men
Would slip back to their boats, wouldn’t they?
They would wave off questions, they would
Deny. They would name it mirage, or the patriot
Despair of a people occupied; the same goad
Drives—they plead for understanding—insurgents
In the hills, the Zealots? Call it a fruitless
Dream. The women remember every
Word of it, that dream. It would follow
The Baptist into murdered silence. Say
It is Martha, then, head gripped in her
Wretched hands, who cries out, “It would
Need a miracle…”
They left the shroud with its brutal stains
Tossed down, as a man might fling aside
His bedclothes. At dawn, the Magdalene
Went and told them that had been with Him
As they mourned and wept….
Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulcher;
And stooping down, he beheld the linen cloths
Laid by themselves…
The men drank that hope, they became
Apostles, they went to their several
Martyrdoms rejoicing.
There was a certain other tomb
The two sisters could attend—would be
Expected to attend. At some later time
The rattling bundle was taken up once more;
The relics scattered against discovery;
Lazarus left alone with his second death.
Her fingertips rest—and with such tenderness—
On a skull historians call Allegory for the wages
Sin demands. No matter whether
Sleepless, late, lost in the candle’s writhing
Light, she calls it by another, secret
Name. Nor does she repent.