I'm back. I took a few weeks off from posting after Christmas while my hubby, Bob, was recuperating from injuries sustained from a fall down our basement stairs earlier in December. Then my beloved 96-year-old aunt also took a spill and her injuries landed her in the hospital, then a nursing home. Aunt Carol developed pneumonia and passed away on January 9th. In the midst of providing TLC to Bob and Auntie, Bob and I came down with Covid-19. Fortunately, our cases were mild and we're doing better now, so here I am at my laptop ready to resume posting a poem to my blog on Sundays. Today's selection is, "This Old Bible." Enjoy!
THIS
OLD BIBLE
It’s not one of those expensive
gold-edged, leather-bound volumes.
Its
margins are filled
with
scrawled notations
gleaned
from personal revelations
and
years of teaching
under
Jonathan and Wayne.
There
are yellow highlights,
asterisks,
exclamation points, arrows,
underlines,
sometimes double underlines,
sometimes
double underlines in red ink.
There
are little line drawings, dates,
Hebrew,
Greek, and Aramaic
transliterations,
translations,
prayers
copied on blank pages in front,
prayer
cards tucked in its pages,
bookmarks,
tracts,
a
few notes and letters.
Its
pages have lost their brightness
from
handling and caressing,
they’ve
absorbed tears,
illuminated
joys.
There
are jagged pen slips
from
dozing,
many
index labels have fallen off.
Its
spine has been repaired
again
and again.
It
doesn’t look like anybody’s treasure.
When
I pass on,
there
might be a little money,
property,
some poems.
There
might be a few pieces
of
inexpensive jewelry.
You’ll
rummage through
the
way we did when Grandpa died,
when
lots of things were thrown in dumpsters,
lots
of things were divided up and given away.
You
may be tempted to toss this book,
but,
no, no, I know you’ll know
this
old battered Bible
is
the most valuable possession
I’ll
leave behind.
Maude Carolan
Behold the Lamb...poetically!
By Maude Carolan Pych
is available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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