Mary Resurrected

John Rutherford

April 17, 2022

What joy you must have felt

three days after the crucifixion,

when you heard your son

had left the tomb.

You, who bore witness

to his murder, who saw the guards 

gambling for his sandals,

who bore him, fed him,

raised him up and saw him fall

and bathed his body

through your tears,

who laid him in his sepulchre.

And three days after

the stone moved,

Angels told us,

three Marys in all,

where he had gone,

yes, such joy!

Is it no wonder that I

went to Heaven whole

to seek my son again,

to cradle him again,

to brush his hair,

this child, this man,

to behold my son in his kingdom

at last?

John Rutherford is a poet writing in Beaumont, Texas. Since 2018 he has been an employee in the Department of English at Lamar University. Since 2014, he has followed the events in Ukraine.