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Serpent

The Easter cold relents by afternoon,
and spring feels nearly spring, though snow still packs
the shaded paths. I walk where lichened rocks
have shed their ice with help from the young sun,
and here’s the risk of being on my own:
I find, knotting and unknotting himself
like some old symbol meant to stand for life,
the year’s first snake, disentombed from the stone.

INRI by Martinus Sumbaji

Beaches and scrap piles on his home island of Bali provide Martinus Sumbaji with the materials he needs to make weathered wood “faith boxes” like this portrait of Christ in his Passion. The Indonesian Roman Catholic artist knows from commercial work in animation and digital vector design that imagery with sacred content needs to be accessible to the larger non-Christian culture in which he lives. He uses symbols like the cross, the lamb, and the grape cluster, universally recognized as religious emblems in our age of globalization.

Meet me

in the fading blur of last night’s dream,
the tiles’ seams beneath my feet,

the saucer’s crack, the hard dirt trail,
the lavender air, the stumbling prayer,

the shower’s steam, the empty page,
the scurry of words, the fire of noon,

the wooden knock of interruptions,
the droop of afternoon, the stab

of grief imbedded in a tune,
the string of syllables in flight,

the lost connection, the evening wine,
the sinking haze of the yet-undone—