I heard my own name beating in His Blood

[esteliwyn]

IN THE UPPER ROOM
Charles O'Donnell, C.S.C.

What did you hear last night, your head on His breast there?
It was Peter in the dark supper-room
Asking of John,
Who with Mary, His Mother, was just returned
From burying Him.

I heard His blood moving like an unborn child,
And His Heart crying.
I heard Him talking with His Father
And the Dove.
I heard an undertone as of the sea swinging, and a whispering
at its centre.
I listened, and all the sound
Was a murmuring of names.
I heard my own name beating in His Blood,
And yours, Peter,
And all of you.
And I heard Judas,
And the names of all that have been
Or shall be to the last day.
And it was His Blood was calling out these names,
And they possessed His Blood.

Did you hear my name?
Asked a woman who was sitting at His mother's feet.
I heard your name, Mary of Magdala, and it was like a storm at sea
And the waves racing.

I heard Peter's name,
And the sea broke, I thought, and ran over the world.

You heard the name of Mary, His Mother, Peter said
quietly, as he wept there kneeling.
I did, and it was like the singing of winds and they were moving
over an ocean of stars, and every star like a hushed child sleeping.

Again Peter -
What of Iscariot?
I heard the tide come in, and I felt the tide go out,
And I saw a dead man washed up on the shore.

And then John fell to weeping, and no one there could comfort
him but only Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and he could tell them
No other word.