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Mandatum Thursday
(in four parts)


Love-In

A new command
Not with
Exception
For a new campaign
In a self-serving
Brutal world

Plutarchy
Oligarchy
And other -archys ruling
Into strategic sets of rules
That will not stave off
Slaughter
And
Diaspora
When the time comes
For these
With the destruction of the temple
Made of stone

While the prophecies
We have
Seem to outpace
Themselves

But this temple
And each temple here
For bodies
In which the spirit of the Lord
Shall dwell
And dwells now
Without the naming
Of the flames
In scores of days

We are gathered
And I give you orders
That you
Not rule the world
But that
You love each other

There
That’s it

We’ve had our meal together
Soon one of you will leave
Then more of us
To pray
Inside a garden
While the plots unwind themselves
At last
And the tragedies
Play out
And you are scattered as a force
Then return
To each other
And your families
And friends
For where else
And to whom else
Shall you go

My having gone away
As I predicted
To you
More than once

Yes
Peter
I mean you
Though you will come with me
In an ersatz fashion
For a while
Longer

And to all of you
I say
As a new commandment
Though it is not one of the ten
Per se
And yet the reason for all these
And hardly new
But newly given you
Especially due to
The days
We live in
Now
Before the last

Yes
Love God
And each other
Love me
Please
As I love you
And the rest
Though we might fall away
Will work
Will
Last
Until we know each other
Even better
After
The coming hours
And
Days


Word to the Wise

You’d think
He would have told us
Something else
Something useful
For our lives
And for the plans
We made
Together

You’d think
He’d have a strategy
After that
Triumph in the city
While keeping the Sanhedrin
On the ropes
And even the Romans
Are guessing
Who we are
And what we want
When we say
It’s not sedition
But
Respect
For everyone
Lifting up the child
Rescuing the woman
Even speaking with the women
About doctrine

We argued
About who is first
When
Of course
We knew
We were fighting for lieutenants
And seating places
Close to him
And then
He put us in our places
Acknowledging
Our equanimity
And status
Being equals

Meaning
Of course
We all are generals
In the new campaign
To rise
And to negotiate
From strength
With all the powers
Of the world
The forces in the city
Everything that waits
As armies
Just outside the gates
Or training
In the countryside

Shall come to us
While we march out
And up
To take the land
And everything God made
And all that he commanded
Of people
And the water
And all the Earth
That
We shall share
Of course
In equal parts

Something like a legion
Under each of us
Of fighters
Who shall never tire
For being right
At last
Having the perfect leadership
At last

And then
He gives us orders
After supper
Calling us to love
Demanding it
In fact
And what kind
Of armoring
Is that


Gardening

Here I am
They do not understand
They are tired
They rest
They sleep
I can’t blame them
In a worldly way
Even though
I need them
Wakefully
And ready
For what’s next

And what’s next
But
Violence
And shame
Torn clothing
And spilled blood
From the slicing
Of my flesh
And the final
Ignominy
Death
In that terrible
Criminal
Way

And must I go
Could not we stay
And
Talk
And I could have some wine
Sweet for sustenance
Rather than gall
That shall only help
My breath
To leave my body
After
It’s perched
Upon that hill
That shall split
And show the maw of hell
Beneath

Dear God
Keep me from this
Keep me
From that
We know you can do it
There must be
Another way

Why must all end
In bitterness
The dust of death
Only a tomb
At most
And not this kindly place
To rest

But
You are God
You are commander
You are parent
You are friend
You are me
And with the other
Helping
We three must manage
All the hours
To come

They’re even on the way
Because now is the end
Of this hour
For me to ask
And you refuse
And we go on
Toward the thing
The human part of us
Has not experienced
Not emptied
Of ourselves

The last surprise
And awful
Time to go down
As they are here
With the glee of hell
Behind them


Malchus

There had to be
One final act of healing
Since all
Malchus was doing
Was to obey
An earthly master
Not having met him earlier
For all
He might have heard
And then to bleed
Because of that
Disciple
Of the lord of miracles
And teaching

So healing at last
One final
Astonishment
Before the world closes over
And he is away
Certainly by orders
Strategy
Of lies
Never to return to us
On the Earth
We know
Again


C L Couch


Photo by Zoelle Suo on Unsplash