The organ peals through pictured panes that etch strange patterns on the grass,
A thorned head shadowed on the flags, beneath the feet of all who pass.
A man came by with weary lurch, and failing footing of the old,
He paused before the lighted church, and shivered in the sleety cold,
The music swept him to the door, light shone upon his poor attire,
He shuffled to the street before his pride succumbed to his desire.
The music keened to minor notes that wailed and quavered on the breeze,
To pierce the outposts of the stars, and blend in cosmic symphonies.
A girl was limned against the glow that jewelled the runnels of the street,
With pace deliberate and slow, she sauntered by on questioning feet.
Her mouth a gash of crimson flame against a mask of lacquered snow,
Her eyes were pools of frozen shame where hope had perished long ago.
The music rippled to the night as streams from fountain sources start,
Boy voices lilting clear and sweet, “Lord, make me clean and pure of heart.”
A shadow flickered down the lane, and groped with cold and puny hands
Where freezing drops of winter rain beat tattoo on the garbage cans,
A mongrel snarled from out the night, and, hunger giving place to dread,
A little child ran to the light to gnaw a moulded crust of bread.
The organ pulsed to tides of sound that made the loft a living throb,
Then died away on one deep note, as poignant as a mother’s sob.
Now, did a shudder truly pass across the figure on the pane
And whence the Stranger on the grass who smiled amid the threshing rain?
Or were they thorns that cruelly tore the brow of Him who softly ran
Along the road where passed the whore, the starveling and the paupered man?
(Burnett A. Ward)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, Christianity Poems, Mothers Poems, Snow Poems, Music Poems, Winter Poems, Desire Poems, Questioning PoemsBased on Keywords: sauntered, outposts, sleety, succumbed, threshing, pulsed, runnels, tattoo, lacquered, limned, starveling