Lent 2 B Year of St. Mark
cleansing
Harvey S. Mozolak
no intruder
but the Son
in his Father’s house
he seeks
the temple shops
stalls where confession
ends in the penance of pigeons
contrition in the attrition of herds of cattle
and sheep heard bleating payment blood
the coins stacked in columns
silver thin and vineless
will make change
not in those who enter
to burn and bow
to pray with pretense
muttering of mercy and ablutions
but in God’s wealth
become a poverty which consumes
the riches of worship whipped
after fluttering and fleeing animals
across the back of his anointed body
the thorn-stemmed templed
roped and dragged
toward destruction
and then beyond
toward the home of heaven
where nothing is sold
for all has already been bought
for the Father by his Son
Exodus 20. 1-17
written before stone
Harvey S. Mozolak
law of the land
and pull of the tide
so the sun might swirl
palm fronds their green
swaying in the wet wind
a ripe fruit
that drops decays
and seeds a new stem
ten words
of gravity
growth and light
touching God’s ordering
of creation’s reach
never beyond
where the breath within
has been the living
ever tablet of the heart
John 2. 13-22
cleansing body
Harvey S. Mozolak
a body not for sale
his near Passover
on the way up to Jerusalem
God’s civic thumbprint
in the flesh of earth
connecting heaven’s pulse
to the human hemorrhage
he the lamb
the ox for slaughter
wealth exchanging
turning the tables
of all treasured economies
dove that flutters alights
and signs of abated wrath
draining gone
as he walks among the colonnades
rebuilding how we awe
John 2. 13-22
speaking of his body
Harvey S.Mozolak
qodes haqqodasim
the stain
not of cattle blood
tracked sheep dung
pigeon-whitened feathers
coins passed from greasy hands
palms barely wiped
of infant back sides
but the mar and mark
of scuffling feet
dragging the lamb
deeper into the temple
with whips
that scourge heaven
and scour an earth
under construction
splinted by fracture
and limbed by severance
as the holiest healing place
sanctum sanctorum
John 2. 13-22
spring cleaning
Harvey S. Mozolak
the attraction of the city
Jerusalem the marketplace
of a piece of God
selling where there is meant
only the giving and receiving
making money
templed where love is the great exchange
here the smell of rising prayer
was to attract and alter
at the navel of the unseen
sacred scar of the once connected
his own body
destroyed by the God-hawking
of cattle
sheep and doves
the caged for sacrifice
are borne to the air
no longer needed
Christ so consumed
for the Father's altar
that no other table will do
but to begin the three day
destruction
in the cleansing peace of God
sold
the broken bag of silver coins
spilt on the floor
soiled
a bloody whip driving him out
beyond the holy curtain and protecting wall
overturned we flutter free
to rest and nest
on the housing wood
branches that burn in the Friday sun
new center of the universe
Harvey S. Mozolak
no intruder
but the Son
in his Father’s house
he seeks
the temple shops
stalls where confession
ends in the penance of pigeons
contrition in the attrition of herds of cattle
and sheep heard bleating payment blood
the coins stacked in columns
silver thin and vineless
will make change
not in those who enter
to burn and bow
to pray with pretense
muttering of mercy and ablutions
but in God’s wealth
become a poverty which consumes
the riches of worship whipped
after fluttering and fleeing animals
across the back of his anointed body
the thorn-stemmed templed
roped and dragged
toward destruction
and then beyond
toward the home of heaven
where nothing is sold
for all has already been bought
for the Father by his Son
Exodus 20. 1-17
written before stone
Harvey S. Mozolak
law of the land
and pull of the tide
so the sun might swirl
palm fronds their green
swaying in the wet wind
a ripe fruit
that drops decays
and seeds a new stem
ten words
of gravity
growth and light
touching God’s ordering
of creation’s reach
never beyond
where the breath within
has been the living
ever tablet of the heart
John 2. 13-22
cleansing body
Harvey S. Mozolak
a body not for sale
his near Passover
on the way up to Jerusalem
God’s civic thumbprint
in the flesh of earth
connecting heaven’s pulse
to the human hemorrhage
he the lamb
the ox for slaughter
wealth exchanging
turning the tables
of all treasured economies
dove that flutters alights
and signs of abated wrath
draining gone
as he walks among the colonnades
rebuilding how we awe
John 2. 13-22
speaking of his body
Harvey S.Mozolak
qodes haqqodasim
the stain
not of cattle blood
tracked sheep dung
pigeon-whitened feathers
coins passed from greasy hands
palms barely wiped
of infant back sides
but the mar and mark
of scuffling feet
dragging the lamb
deeper into the temple
with whips
that scourge heaven
and scour an earth
under construction
splinted by fracture
and limbed by severance
as the holiest healing place
sanctum sanctorum
John 2. 13-22
spring cleaning
Harvey S. Mozolak
the attraction of the city
Jerusalem the marketplace
of a piece of God
selling where there is meant
only the giving and receiving
making money
templed where love is the great exchange
here the smell of rising prayer
was to attract and alter
at the navel of the unseen
sacred scar of the once connected
his own body
destroyed by the God-hawking
of cattle
sheep and doves
the caged for sacrifice
are borne to the air
no longer needed
Christ so consumed
for the Father's altar
that no other table will do
but to begin the three day
destruction
in the cleansing peace of God
sold
the broken bag of silver coins
spilt on the floor
soiled
a bloody whip driving him out
beyond the holy curtain and protecting wall
overturned we flutter free
to rest and nest
on the housing wood
branches that burn in the Friday sun
new center of the universe
less than a minute ago
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