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✦ 155 ✦ Mary Magdalene II Spring cleaning comes before the Feast. Apart from all this bustling stir, I take in hand Thy holy feet And wash them with my pail of myrrh. I grope for sandals, but in vain. Through tears I cannot see at all. My loosened braids have tumbled down And drape my eyelids like a pall. Against my skirt I’ve held Thy feet And wrapped them with the beads I wear, I’ve watered them with tears, my Lord, And cloaked them with my flowing hair. I see the future’s specter rise, As clearly as if time had ceased, And gifted with prophetic eyes I see the things that sibyls see. The Temple veil will fall one day, And we shall huddle at the gate, And underfoot the earth will sway, Perhaps in pity for my fate. The cohorts of the guard shall form, And horsemen through the land shall ride; And, like a whirlwind in a storm, The Cross will stretch to fill the sky. ✦ 156 ✦ And I shall fall before that Cross And bite my lips and rend my face, And Thou shalt spread Thine arms abroad To take the world in Thine embrace. For whom, though, can such breadth be meant, Such torment and such awesome might? Has earth so many souls and lives? So many rivers, groves, and tribes? Yet those three days shall come to pass, And drown me in the blackest night, But from that void shall I be cast Into the Resurrection’s light. ...

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