Water & salt

The weeping woman who knelt at the feet
of Jesus and anointed him for burial
is sister to the lithe Abishag; the maid

who cradled the hoary head of David
and warmed his paper skin with her own.
Her tears remind one of Bathsheba’s,

wept over a husband, murdered
by a lover-king. The salt from those tears
brings to mind Lot’s nameless wife