Lazara
– after the Sacrament of Reconciliation
Ezekiel 36:26
Grit & grind of gravestone shoved aside:
bars of light burst in.
My leprous heart bounds up:
blossoms like a rose.
A shout. I hear my name, words cried out
by the voice of Love himself, the voice
of one I know; of one who still knows me...
Lazara! Come out!
Tangled in death’s trappings,
I stagger to the cave-mouth,
blindfolded by the slam of light, yet
washed in the outrush of mercy’s river.
And then,
a command:
Loose her.
Let her go.
Fumbling fingers ease away
the cloths that bind my eyes close-shut,
untie the twines tight-knotting
death-stiff hands.
His voice is one that was, not long before,
too full of weeping.
Walk here,
he bids me.
After four blank nights, I tremble, stumble forward—
dazzled, dazed. Blood surges through me;
Mercy’s torrent breaks across my ears.
Here, today, I do begin to live again,
my blood to run,
my red-rose heart to bloom.
Now rolled away is that leaden sorrow,
by grace replaced with far more tender marrow.
© Lizzie Ballagher
One of the winners in Ireland’s 2024 Fingal Poetry Festival Competition and in 2022’s Poetry on the Lake, Lizzie Ballagher focuses on landscapes, both psychological and natural. She was a Pushcart nominee in 2018. She will be reading at Poetry on the Lake (Italy) in October this year. Her poems have appeared in print and online in all corners of the English-speaking world. Find her blog at lizzieballagherpoetry.wordpress.com
Amethyst Review 