When you can't move

Well we are moving, having purchased a condo in Langley city.

There could be so much to say if I weren't so tired from getting the 5th wheel ready to sell. Please pray it does sell.

In the last post I wrote that more was coming. What I was thinking about was something I wrote a few years ago. In this case the main character couldn't move. Can you imagine that. Yes some of you can through experience. I can only imagine, which is what I did and wrote a short play in verse for narrator and four voices. I called it "Flat On A Mat," I hope you enjoy.

FLAT ON A MAT

A poem for narrator and four voices

Narrator

Flat on a mat he lay

helpless and forlorn.

Flat on a mat he lay

this man from Capernaum.

He had learned to listen carefully,

since his limbs he could not move,

to the sounds of feet of friends or foe.

Often alone and abandoned,

he learned how and when to cry out.

Schemuel

“Where go you now – don’t leave me alone

Who do you go to seek?”

Friend

“Joseph the carpenter’s son, Jesus, is causing quite a stir.

He’s teaching and healing with such great power

The rulers are all in a flap.

‘He’s stealing our sheep!’

‘He’s blaspheming God!’

‘Just wait till the Romans hear this!’ ”

Schemuel

“Please help me, I’d see him if only I could.

I knew him when he was a child.”

Friend

“Wait here,

I’ll get Caius and Zeke,

I’m sure they will help

and Maxim is still in his shop!”

Schemuel

“Maxim will help? Surely not!”

Friend

“Oh yes he will help, says your bad for his trade.”

Maxim

“”Come let us be off,

he’s been here quite long enough

depleting my profits what with welfare and all.

Perhaps Jesus will fix him enough

to take him off our hands!”

Friend

“Be quiet Maxim, You know he can hear

and feels deeply as you or I.”

Caius

“Look at the crowd, the house is full

we can’t even get near the door!”

Friend

“Lets try the roof!”

Others

“It will not work:”

- “The stairs are too narrow.”

- “He’ll expire in the heat.”

- “There’s no door up there you know”

Friend

“Just get on with it, and don’t complain!

Careful now! – lift that tile with care

don’t let any drop.”

Zeke

“There, I see him below,

looks ordinary to me.”

Maxim

“Tie the ropes well,

careful, don’t let him fall.”

Caius

“Good,

they’re taking him now from below.”

Zeke

“I can’t hear, be quiet,

I think he said something ‘bout sins.”

Maxim

“The Priests and Law Keepers

are rabid with rage!.”

Friend

“He’s speaking again.

They’ve stoped shouting.

Schemuel’s moving his arms! Now his legs and feet.”

“Look he’s sitting up and rolling his mat!”

Maxim

“And now he’s walking out of the house.”

Friend

“What was it that Jesus said?’

Zeke

“All I heard was something ‘bout going home.”

Caius

“And I thought that Jesus was just one of the guys.”

Narrator

Flat on a mat was he

Then Jesus spoke you see

What does Jesus speak to thee?

© 08/08/2004GNMcL

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