Sep 15 | Mark 14:66-72 (Poem)

66 While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came by. ⁶⁷When she saw Peter warming himself, she stared at him and said, ‘You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.’ ⁶⁸But he denied it, saying, ‘I do not know or understand what you are talking about.’ And he went out into the forecourt. Then the cock crowed. ⁶⁹And the servant-girl, on seeing him, began again to say to the bystanders, ‘This man is one of them.’ ⁷⁰But again he denied it. Then after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, ‘Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean.’ ⁷¹But he began to curse, and he swore an oath, ‘I do not know this man you are talking about.’ ⁷²At that moment the cock crowed for the second time. Then Peter remembered that Jesus had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.’ And he broke down and wept.

 

who is she, with sneering voice

“aren’t you a galilean?”

 

never spoken of, no story of her own

 

why point him out? why rout him

like a rat or a bug?

who was he to you?

 

ah, but without her

your will could not be done

 

it is not an admirable job

a spy, an owl on a housetop

a garbage collector

an exterminator

 

so loathed she has no story

but jael had one, and jezebel

and tamar and dinah

 

one woman

for the sins of the world

forgotten