Lazarus would die again,
of course.
And both his sisters.
And Mary -- all the Marys --
though the mother would be said
only to have fallen asleep
and then disappeared, leaving
a bed of flowers behind.
And Mary the preacher would be a whore
before all was said and said again,
in a slightly different way each time.
Then she would retire to the south of France,
(so lovely at this time of year)
she is only now emerging from her cave.
Peter would go on to greater things
and he would hold onto his sword,
because you never know.
Through it all, now and then,
Jesus would come through the wall
with peace free for the taking,
right then and there.
But mostly he'd appear in battlefields
and in the fires of heretics. Many times,
he still would marvel at our slowness:
and we would stolidly refuse to rise, preferring
to hunker down with Pontius Pilate,
because we could not parse the truth.
Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
Feast of the Resurrection, 2006
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