Sacred Sequence
Life through death
crucified and risen.
Resurrection – 
rooted in death,
a slain lamb 
taken lifeless from the cross.
Your vacant flesh
spiced, swaddled,
entombed behind the stone.
Your life-filled Spirit, 
in swift surrender
plummeted through the passage, 
the place between the worlds.

You could have risen, 
had immediate access 
to His embrace, 
Son obedient to the end.
You chose instead
the unknown descent,
still seeking lost sheep.
Crossed the abyss 
beyond life’s borders.
The realm of gloom 
and darkness, dust 
from which none arise 
your destination.

You traversed
ancient thresholds,
vast graveyards 
of all who’ve gone before. 
You breached the gates of Sheol
dispossessed its one-way passage,
culled the slumbering souls,
reversed captivity 
released those bound 
to go before you,
a straight-swift passage to
their Father’s breast. 
You could have risen, 
the ever-living Word,
a firstfruit offered, waved 
before Your father’s throne.
You chose instead 
divine suspension,
a final garden sunrise visit,
freed from flesh, 
yet not glorified.
Eternal inclusion
proclaimed by your presence.

Three days, three nights.
Early morning’s empty tomb.
A woman waits, walks, 
weeps in blindness, unconsoled. 
For all who grieve, 
who cannot comprehend 
the mystery of godliness, 
Your choice to tarry, 
lay aside the glory
offers comfort, allays the grief,
grants the stunning gift of witness.

The course now run,
reconciliation realized.
The Son returned, 
the circle whole,
all loss restored,
the Father’s love is satisfied.

*Brother
Three hundred 
sixty-five 
times six days 
almost. 
You walked. 
the same steps
the same journey,
the same companion
no expectation 
of difference. 

The same sun-bright 
heat-shimmering waves 
sheening from
the same stones
the same guards
the same guns
sentinels on the same walls
the same armed defenders
walk your same path
each day the same

Autistic brother,
beloved son. 
for you no difference
soldiers, Arabs, Jews
the same.

Hand-held
your phone 
ready, waiting
mayhap to hear
your father’s voice
your mother’s tones
the same day voices
familiar as the stones
worn, polished 
underneath your feet.

This day, changed
shouts, sounds, 
your ears accosted
fear surrounds, 
overwhelms. 
Terror chased,
you seek safe space.
You race, 
a blind flight escape
from rains of living fire.

No refuge 
from the chase.
Seven times bullets 
breach the boundaries,
your young flesh bleeds red 
amidst the rubbish. 
No shield 
no shelter found.
The garbage room
your final destination.

The streets, the walls the same
the guns, the guards the same
they never saw 
will never see 
the rareness that was you. 

* In memory of Iyad al-Halaq, a young, unarmed Palestinian man on his way to a special needs school in the Old City of Jerusalem, when Israeli border police chased, shot and killed him.

For Hisham Abu Hawash
Father of five, 
alive to see this day.
One hundred and forty 
foodless days. 
Alive, unfree, 
shunted to the margins 
of a sealed bureaucracy. 
Can you breathe? 
Can you think 
as your organs shrink, 
begin to die within?
Is freedom, justice 
more important than your life, 
your slow death
by the hand of those
whose power is absolute?
Captive to soulless, endless
administrative detention. 
No trial, 
no court hearing, 
no evidence 
for how many days,  
how many years? 
No proof 
to bolster the claim
that you “endanger regional security.”  
Accomplices, all 
who will not take a stand, 
who will turn their eyes 
from the shrinking man.
Day 140 –  
Your dignity intact. 
Your choice 
to face, 
embrace death,
rather than illicitly confess.
Your choice, 
will it open the eyes 
of a blind society?
Voyeurs, hypocrites all 
who watch the slowing 
of your heart, your breath,
your life.  

January 3, 2022 © Lisa Loden (On January 4, Day 141, Israel cancelled Hisham’s Administrative Detention)

Shark Sea
Sharks are silent in the water,
Swim in shallows and in deeps.
Hug the shoreline, 
Sound the seabeds.
Navigate fresh estuaries,
Plummet down to salted depths.
Drift in sunlit azure atolls,
Glide through hidden cobalt caves.

Sensible to all who passage,
Every ripple resonates,
Calls and draws them, brings them near.
Cruising close with silken speed,
Swift and silent in the waters 
Blues and grays, angels, tigers, 
Great Whites, sawtooths, heads of hammers,
Sharks command the seas and shoals. 

They feed or play as impulse moves them.
All are lethal, each a danger. 
Voyagers, vessels, all imperiled,
Everywhere and in all waters,
Who can know where safety lies?
Hungry sharks will strike at random,
Court the waves with fierce abandon,
Lunge or leap as instinct leads them.

Blessed are the ones who passage 
Through the sharkfilled sea in ships.
Those who risk and brave the dangers
Venture far in fathomless seas,
Ride and roll the heave of waves, 
Run unmoored before the wind,
See dawn stars and midnight suns,
Frolic free with singing dolphins.