Metanoia

In honor of Spy Wednesday, I’m thinking about Judas. A life painfully tragic . . . yet subtly familiar. How easy it is to change my mind, but not my heart.

Photo by Chris Briggs on Unsplash

Metanoia
Then when Judas, the betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned 
he changed his mind. . . 
Matthew 27:3

and that must have been all that changed—
he dropped the coins and ran, 
fleeing the regret lingering
in the same forest of gray matter 
that brewed the ruse 
of his deceit, buried remorse 
following his fated shadow 
to a field where it hung 
as a locked lump
in his defrauded throat, 
sorrow never swallowed— 

did he study mercy 
but understand it fallow 
in his mind’s folds, 
unable to loosen 
from the tangled mess 
of his wooded web, 
past mere guilt—

to that crossing, 
where one, though shameless, 
hung in his stead and bled 
to burst the damn 
of his knotted warp 
with blood that unties 
the twisted 

and clears a path 
to the heart . . .

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Thus, it is truly a Happy Easter week!

And to poetry lovers and all of my muses, Happy National Poetry Month!