QUEM QUAERITIS?

In an empty garden I am alone again.
Dryness is underfoot,
And life went with the women
Back to Jerusalem.
Not here nor in the distance
Is the Strength perceived—
Love, Whom they crucified.
Oh, unhappy embers, lit again
From Friday's fire, remembering
Splintered wood and nails and Mary's eyes!
How lost to find Him gone,
How weak to walk about a quiet place
Where a tomb lies empty
And a silent stone was moved!

Here is where we laid Him.
Where can I look but here
To find my life?
I find this pain...
But not the healing pain that kept Him dying
Three long hours.
My desire, seeking Love and finding it on the Cross,
Turns, itself, to pain to keep Love near.
And now they've even taken death away.

		Lucille Hamilton