XXI
THE RIGHT INDEX FINGER

From the framework of the cross
the accusing finger of your right hand
points to what is written in the eternal
book of life. Just one time, You, Jesus,
the Word, wrote on the ground, in the dust           John 8:8, etc.
where those of us made of clay tread,
and not with pen nor ink, but with the same
finger that anointed the blind man’s eyes           John 9:6.
and healed him. It was morning,
and as you did it, you humbled yourself
by bending down. And the finger that wrote           Luke 11:20.
was the same finger of God with which
You cast out demons.
                                    So that in the soft dust
we might read the lesson of conscience
that your finger wrote as you bowed
over the earth, which is your open book,
both living and sacred! As you wrote in it,
to demonstrate the humble task of the writer,
by humbling yourself.
                                    The adulteress,
her eyes on the ground which was bathed
with the tears of her sorrow, was walking alone
with her arms crossed over her breast,
holding in it the gift of your forgiveness,
like a mother holds a child who has
just been born.
                            May my new pen inscribe
on the soil of my homeland
the forgiveness which your lesson teaches us!