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| The Ten Lepers, Jorge Cocco Sántangelo |
(Luke 17:11-19)
Ten shattered bodies cried out
for mercy.
Quaking voices carried across distance
propelled by desperation,
a white sail of hope against hope,
their plea not answered in words. Only
"Show yourselves to be confirmed as clean"
and off they ran, aching
to cast off the smothering weight
of exile, the shunning
of those who affirmed their suffering
as mark of curse.
Each step feeling lighter, they rushed on,
all but one. The one who,
even when cleansed, would be
scorned as a mangy mongrel.
Doubly outcast,
his most tenuous claim to hope
convicted the wary heart, and
ignited the fragile embers of faith.
Perhaps for him, the gift
loomed larger, the removal
of living death more precious, the kindness
the more radiant
for being given despite barriers.
Mercy admits no calculus
of worthiness;
gratitude respects no boundary.
One turned back to rejoice and sing out thanks
from the dust.
Ten were cleansed.
One was healed.
-- Leslie Barnes Scoopmire
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