The Unnamed Sinner
"A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came to him with a jar of alabaster perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them . . ." (Luke 7:37-38)
Breathless, I run, as
if I were the
Cutting gale that stings my unnamed face
Like the morbid bite
of a serpent
Slithering slyly up
my leg
To reopen old wounds.
Breathless, I fight
To force feeling into
my heavy limbs
As they traverse
mounds of mired clay
Baked by the
unrelenting swelter of the sun
That has etched deep
lines in the crevices of my trembling bronze hands,
Clutching close a
weighted jar – gushing with the aroma of precious perfume,
Gushing with the
shine of a thousand pieces of silver,
And gushing with the blackness of sins.
My sins.
Breathless, I stop numb,
At the unapproachable threshold between consummation
And the depravity that adorns me like exquisite jewelry.
The low murmur of futile chatter is silenced by deafening stares.
Their opaque glares scream "go,"
But his luminescent gaze whispers
"Come."
Breathless, I crumble
In awestruck sorrow to his calloused feet,
And I ponder the forbidden lands where mine have traveled,
Only to be tainted with the dust of insidious ecstasy.
His leathery skin becomes a canvas
For the smear of hot tears formed by swollen sobs,
And for the smudge of cracked lips leaving impure kisses,
Mopped away by the brush of knotted hair,
As grimy fingertips caress the sweet oil deep into his pores,
And deeper still,
Until the earsplitting clamor of hostile ridicule
Becomes the distant whisper of leaves rustling in the soft wind.
"For he who is forgiven of little loves little."
"Moisha," Savior.
The word rolls of my parched lips
Like a pearl of redeeming crimson blood,
Or a bead of cleansing rain
That sinks far into the sea,
But is not lost in its vastness.
Breathless, I fade into his pure embrace,
Where I am but a speck,
And yet somehow I am the whole world.
"Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
My name is "forgiven."
My name is "loved."
You are forgiven, and you are loved- and that's the only label you'll ever need.
