POEMS

Emmaus  Traveler  (Luke 24:13-16) 

The airport here in Frankfurt is bright at all hours.

This morning it is full of people, speaking, moving purposefully.

Tall, fair and focused, they pass me by.

I am newly arrived, unsure what time it is,

Knowing only where to go and wait,

and where to wash my face.

On the way, I meet a brown-skinned woman

Short, dressed in black and lace, dragging a lumpy bag.

She sees me seeing her, looks up, and grasps my arm.

“Sao Paolo?” she inquires.  She expects me to know.

I meet her eyes and shake my head

“No- no idea what plane.”

Then I understand:  the ocean she desires to cross,

I have just passed over.

“Sao Paolo – en Brasil?” I ask, in helpless Spanish.

“Si!” she rattles on, in excited Portuguese.

She sees I cannot understand.

But we have met each other.

Turning away, she meets my eye again,

Raises fingers to her mouth

And blows a gentle kiss.

From Kathleen Henderson Staudt, Annunciations: Poems out of Scripture (2003; rpt. Wipf & Stock, 2018)