A daily poem for the 40 days of Lent 2025 with each day’s poem inspired by the numbers 1- 40 in succession.
FORTY
the sky is falling,
horizon on fire,
all that can be shaken
is rattling at a higher frenzy
since these forty days began–
span of the rainfall
over the floating menagerie,
of the desert-waiting
with the wild beasts,
of the unknown fate
on the terrible mountain.
when Lent has spent
its seeping sorrow and I
am lost with help long overdue,
I calm myself and
once again choose You.
Note: This is the poem with which I ended last year’s Lent poem project (The Psalm 37 Menagerie). It also proved a fine and fitting end for this year’s The Strange Sum of Things.
THIRTY-NINE
thirty nine lashes
tearing your back
draining your life
giving me life
bringing me back
to beauty from ashes
Note: The Jews had a law limiting whip lashes to 40 (Deuteronomy 25:3). To ensure this was never exceeded, “39 lashes” became the standard of punishment. Paul mentions undergoing this penalty five times in 2 Corinthians 11:24 . Whether Jesus’ flogging was 39 lashes or not we cannot say as His punishment was conducted by Romans. It was probably much more cruel than the Jewish version, and something that Bouguereau in his The Flagellation of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1880) somewhat sanitizes.
THIRTY-EIGHT
you hurl words
at me like bullets
from a .38 special,
but I am unmoved.
they bounce off
like grease splatter
on hot teflon.
it hurts more
than I let on
but no matter,
I stand on
the truth that
I am loved and
worth loving:
this my flak
jacket. not
impervious but
it's something.
Note: American chemist Roy J. Plunkett accidentally discovered the non-stick polymer, Teflon, on April 6, 1938, which ended up revolutionizing cookware. The .38 Special was the standard revolver for law enforcement from the 1920’s until 1990.
THIRTY-SEVEN
the world spins
at a fevered pitch;
saber-rattling
braggadocio
seeps through
sweating dreams
and turning fits.
we take the
temperature
again and again
through the night
hoping for a
drop to normal,
but there is no
end in sight,
no calming words,
wise, maternal.
Note: The normal temperature for a healthy body is 37 degrees Celsius (or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
THIRTY-SIX
this airport runway, lined
with lights fired by krypton,
welcomes home all who, unable to fly
on their own power, white-knuckle
land with the seatbelt sign on.
meanwhile the man of steel
flies on fast and free, far and near,
and each time after saving the world,
touches down to earth again,
but never here.
Note: The gas krypton has the atomic number 36 and, due to its high stability, is often used in lighting features, including runway lights at airports. Good news for us. Not so much for Superman.
THIRTY-FIVE
voyager one, turning thirty five,
reached the edge of the heliosphere,
a look of pride upon his face,
bravely turned, waved goodbye,
and like a good son off to war, disappeared
into interstellar space.
Note: Voyager 1, launched in 1977, took 35 years to reach the edge of the heliosphere (the protective solar wind zone cast around our sun) and entered into interstellar space (the vast area between stars and their astrospheres). Voyager 1 is still active and sending data back to earth some 15 billion miles away from the sun. The image is a NASA artistic depiction of the heliosphere of our sun.
THIRTY-FOUR
try disproving the
idea of miracles
and you will keep
crashing headlong
into anomalies
you can’t explain
with your theories
and laws: an act
of forgiveness,
vanishing tumors,
the empty tomb,
the house for sale
with Kringle’s cane
in the corner of
the vacant room.
Note: “Kringle’s cane” is an allusion to the delightful end of the classic Christmas movie Miracle on the 34th Street.
THIRTY-THREE
bezos became
a millionaire
at thirty-three.
at that same age
you were hanging
on a roman cross.
revolutionaries
under different
labels:
you, making
all things new.
he, gumming up
the temple court with
money-changing tables.
Note: Jeff Bezos, founder of the Amazon empire, first became a millionaire at the age of 33. Jesus Christ died on the cross at the age of 33.
THIRTY-TWO
we are facing off on
checkered squares, each
adjacent to its opposite,
touching sides but as far apart
as love and indifference,
as far as false is from the real.
we look to fence the other
into a desperate corner,
block all routes of escape,
to feel the checkmate thrill,
the murder of queens, humiliating
kings on the highest hill
with castles breached, bishops
forced at swordpoint to recant
the ancient creeds they preached.
to you this is just a strategy game,
something you need to get off your chest.
meanwhile our children wander aimlessly,
nowhere safe to stop and rest.
Note: There are 32 black squares, 32 white squares, and 32 pieces on the chess board at the beginning of the game! In this poem I am imagining our current polarized culture as one big game of chess.
THIRTY-ONE
butterscotch ribbon, date nut, peach,
chocolate almond, banana nut fudge–
how do I choose from among all these
thirty-one flavors that I love?
burgundy cherry, french vanilla?
maybe today lemon crisp!
tomorrow – coffee or rocky road nut?
next day following - peppermint stick!
how grateful I am that Baskin-Robbins
has provided dessert for my daily lunch,
thoughtfully creating a different awesome
flavor for every day of the month!
Note: Baskin-Robbins’ 1945 original flavors: Banana Nut Fudge, Black Walnut, Burgundy Cherry, Butterscotch Ribbon, Cherry Macaroon, Chocolate Almond, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Fudge, Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Ribbon, Coffee, Coffee Candy, Date Nut, Egg Nog, French Vanilla, Green Mint Stick, Lemon Crisp, Lemon Custard, Lemon Sherbet, Maple Nut, Orange Sherbet, Peach, Peppermint, Fudge Ribbon, Peppermint Stick, Pineapple Sherbet, Raspberry Sherbet, Rocky Road Nut, Strawberry, Vanilla Burnt Almond. Image by Maya Schedrina on Pixabay.com, used by Commons Creative License.
THIRTY
is it I? asked one.
is it I? asked another anxiously
glancing around the table.
you kept your eyes away from His,
staring down at the broken bread
and half-empty cup of wine,
unable to see their simmering glory
taken as you were by the glimmer
of the promised thirty pieces of silver.
The Last Supper, Leonardo Davinci, 1495-1498
Note: Davinci’s famous painting captures the moment Jesus announces that one of His disciples will betray Him. Davinci breaks from tradition by placing Judas close to his right. Notice that he clutches a bag of silver coins, and that his face is turned away into partial shadow. The cut-out image above with labels is from https://smarthistory.org/leonardo-last-supper/.
TWENTY-NINE
all the bones in my skull
are straining, stretching,
my head so full of thoughts
swirling around it’s hard
to gather them, calm them down,
form them into a coherent ring
around my mottled saturn self.
I need a little get-away
for my taciturn mental health,
some time under the joshua tree
staring up at dark night skies
over twentynine palms to find
the threatening fear unfounded
when resized to sane proportion:
how small I am and how surrounded.
Notes: the human skull has 29 bones; Saturn’s orbit around the sun takes 29 years; Twentynine Palms is a city in CA known for dark night skies ideal for stargazing, and serves as a gateway to the Joshua Tree National Park.
TWENTY-EIGHT
february was last in line
to receive her allotment of days.
on account of being late
she was given only twenty eight.
everyone else had either thirty
or thirty one. Having begun feeling
worse over her impoverishment,
God said, “remember the last are first.
so every fourth year I will add
a day to make your heart leap, and
you will be the one to honor
the greatest U.S. presidents.
if all of that is not enough,
you alone will own the day of love.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
sixty-three percent of the world is water.
the insecure minority partner is land.
blue and aqua are the dominant colors.
green and brown are second-hand.
terra firma, afraid of the ocean’s advantage,
has pugnaciously chosen to attack it
with a cowardly underhanded package
of global garbage filled with microplastics.
Note: 27% of the world is land. 72% is ocean. 1% is fresh water.
TWENTY-SIX
his poker face was implacable
given the stakes. the poise,
remarkable, ability to keep
in his head the number of black
and red cards played, 26 of each
to pay attention to. without
a twitch, without a tell,
the giants fell around the table,
folding one by one in turn,
until he stared down one last rival
with unblinking eyes of iron.
Notes: I don’t know much about poker, but I do know you have to have a face that gives nothing away! The atomic number for iron is 26. Today’s whimsical image was created by nokono and shared on Pixabay.com, used with the creative commons license.
TWENTY-FIVE
lord, if my mistakes could be reordered
so that instead of bringing so much grief
they could, like the extra high leaf
on the back of some Wisconsin quarters,
turn a 25-cent account into
ten thousand times that amount,
I would fall to my knees, on my face,
beside the gifts of cheese and cow,
and thank You for such grace.
Note: The 50 State Quarters Program was a 10-year initiative (1999-2008) by the U.S. Mint to honor each of the 50 states with unique designs. The back of the Wisconsin quarter featured a cow, a wheel of cheese, and an ear of corn. A few rare quarters were misprinted with an extra leaf on the cornhusk and these coins have become valuable, some selling for more than $2,000.
TWENTY-FOUR
blessed are the pure in heart.
your words show me up a sham.
noble on the outside, sure,
but I know who I am.
acts of generosity are
opportunities for people to see.
kindness masks the ugly grudge.
behind my smile I piously judge,
thinking more about myself
than anyone or anything else.
Jesus, can you save me by
some beatitude alchemy?
my chromium-dense hypocrisy
has grown so heavy I
can no longer bear it.
like your Cana miracle sign,
can you turn this fool’s gold
heart into 24-carat wine?
Notes: 1.) Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God is the sixth of nine beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12. 2.) Alchemy is the medieval forerunner of chemistry, rooted in the notion of transforming base metals into gold. 3.) Chromium is a dense base metal with the atomic number 24. 4.)Jesus’ first miracle in the Gospel of John was turning water in purification jars into amazing wine at a wedding in Cana (see John 2:1-11). 5.) 24-carat gold is the purest form of gold with no other metals mixed in. 6.) Image by GDJ on Pixabay.com, Creative Commons License.
TWENTY-THREE
yellowjackets diving my picnic,
column of spring ants coming through
the floor crack, twenty-three skidoo!
runny nose from blowing grasses,
headaches after clenching teeth through
dream-fraught nights, twenty-three skidoo!
and twenty-three skidoo all you
phone scammers, leaf-blow whiners,
fast-lane slow drivers, gossipers
at the workplace cooler,
every newer version of every
instrument we thought we knew,
give me back the old, I say,
and twenty-three skidoo!
Note: “Twenty-three skidoo” is an early expression of American slang, meaning, “shoo”, “go away,” “get out of here”. Below is a usage example from the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn published in 1943:
“He dispersed the crowd very simply by telling them he'd send for the pie wagon and take them all down to the station house if they didn't twenty-three skidoo.”
TWENTY-TWO
if I say yes to loving you
it will fill my whole life up
even as it stone-face empties me.
if, instead, I should say no,
I am hollowed, yet with hope
of being filled again eventually.
there is no scenario in which
love is not a catch 22–
damned if you don’t, damned if you do.
and yet these dams break oh so differently.
come, then, wild flood of you,
tumble tender-roughshod over me.
Note: The coinage “catch-22” comes from the 1961 novel of the same name written by Joseph Heller and describes a scenario in which the rules of the game allow no way out. The image today was created by 1tamara2 on pixabay.com and used under the creative commons license.