(Inspired by a walking labyrinth at the Catholic Retreat Center, Frenchville, Pennsylvania)
We can respectfully
imagine Moses,
African-Asian mixed-race,
his body tattooed with Noah’s Ark,
the rainbow, Dove signaling
receding flood waters, and dry land.
Moses with diamond–studded
earrings, silver nose loop,
hipster, rock star,
political activist.
Soft spoken, Moses
walking the Labyrinth,
climbing Mt. Sinai,
filled with rage - how many
days, years, millennia
walking around, hoping
to reach the center, the top,
to touch the crown of Mt. Sinai,
to look into God’s universal Face.
At the top of the Labyrinth center
he lay down and cried
heart breaking with anger.
How many wars he’d witnessed,
death, dying, blood, starvation,
disease, weapons, children being
taught to hate - his rage mounted
like the dark clouds closing
In on him - Nothing
but silence, the Sinai wind,
the stoney Labyrinth path - seemingly
endless to the center - and then
a Labyrinth within a Labyrinth.
God had spoken from a burning bush, once.
This time God said, “Moses,”
what do you want?”
“Peace, Peace!” activist Moses said.
“Peace!”
And God said, “Moses, write on these tablets
what is in your heart, for if it is not
from your heart, it is useless.”
And then Moses wrote ten times
on the tablets his instructions
for bringing Peace.
Moses continued crying as he descended
the Labyrinth Sinai.
When he reached the bottom
his people asked why was he crying.
He answered, “Because I want Peace so much.”
And he gave them the tablets.
© 2024 by Henry Gerstman