Auspicious

The day began a half hour later than I planned.  When we got on the airplane to Orlando, the first person we saw was a beautiful woman in First Class clipping coupons.  Really?  Somehow it was a sign.  It remains to be seen what it means.  Stay tuned.

Somehow auspicious

The woman in the first row

Of First Class seats,

Somehow auspicious,

The woman clipping coupons

From the Sunday paper

The First Class woman

The first thing we see

On entering the plane

Somehow auspicious.

I know it is a sign

Of something.

An auspicious sign

Of something.

Signs

Truth be told, signs of God*s presence are everywhere.  Sometimes we pay attention.  Pastor Davis is pastor of the church which shared the church building where I was vicar.  He was also a toll booth attendant on 355.

In my past life

During four years

Of the forty minute commute

Each way

I regularly found signs.

They spoke to me

On the highway.

On local roads.

Some signs even

Had words:

Easy Street:

No Exit.

or

Sidewalk Ends

In a place it was clear

No pavement continued.

There was a sign

It read:

Pleasant Lane

Dead End.

To make the point

Pleasant Lane

Dead-ended off Route 53

On both sides.

When I took the toll road,

Before the automatic tolltakers

Were installed,

I dutifully tried to give my money

To Pastor Davis

Only to be waved through

With a blessing

Every time.

Last night the moon rose perfect

Last night the moon rose perfect and the sky was crystal clear, cloudless.  The Triduum begins tonight, with the footwashing and Last Supper and stripping of the altar.   We will watch and wait in the Garden.  I was hoping for forsythia or forsythia buds.  But the perfect moon may have to suffice.

Last night

The moon rose perfect:

Full, round, bright.

If spring would only

Come with it.

Still no forsythia.

The rhubarb hints promise.

The birds gather,

Sing these final days in.

The duck lady now wears white

To her neighbor*s turquoise.

The ducks have convened

Elsewhere.

Still

Last night the moon rose perfect.

It must be a sign

Of something.

Best for last

This was the first sign that Jesus performed.  He saved the best for last.

The best wine

Came at the end

When all the guests

Were almost spent

With celebration,

The bride and the groom

Collapsed with the joy

Of everyone gathered,

The days of dancing.

Then and only then

Was the best wine delivered,

Effervescent

At the end,

A sign that the celebration

Had only

Just begun.