Wine in the Glass, Blood in the Sky

by Mark Harris

Wine in the glass, blood in the sky,

the folded promise of God

                  present

overwhelms all vision:

The Second Coming is pale

companion to the first.

The First, close as earth,

demands attention now:

Now, when the matters are as simple

                  as the nursing child,

the need to pay taxes

                  to the occupying powers;

Now, when the poor in spirit and in fact

                  long for release

and hope that God will make

                  all creation new;

Now, when the child stretches

and the mother sees the cross;

Now, when the strange visitors

                  bring rich people's gifts,

when what is needed are

                  bread and wine,

justice and mercy;

Now, when all the babble about

                  the Second Coming

is madness for the tongue,

the only sanity is to speak of this day,

                  and of every

                                    this day,

as time for truth and peace,

                  and for Immanuel.

It is time to take the First Coming

                  seriously,

or the Second not at all.

The Rev. Canon Mark Harris is author of The Challenge of Change: The Anglican Communion in the Post Modern Era, and a member of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company's (The Witness magazine) board of directors. He lives in Lewes, Del., and may be reached by email at poetmark@worldnet.att.net