My Prayer-Poem for the 27th Day of Lent, Monday 15 March 2021

The Philippian Jailer


His world was rocked
and it was midnight.
This jailer, so proud, so secure
with his keys and his captives
and his chain of command,
magistrates and bosses,
and orders discharged.
And then there was singing;
a harmony of hope
from the stocks,
conspiring to unsettle him.
to rattle and baffle and bewilder him;
to move him.


Then, seismic shock!
Rock,
         stock,
                    block,
                               lock,
                                        clock
all rumbling and rattling;
the terror
of a life upended;
power offended.
A confluence of confusion,
nature conspiring with singers
to bring him down with the jail.
Quick! Draw steel!
Reverse the blade and kneel!


But then, captives, thought lost,
not singing but shouting,
“No need! No need!
Confusion and deep darkness,
and the crumbling fortress,
all gave way,
and Faith was born.


©️Mark Andrew Smith
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