This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the LORD. – Exodus 12:11

They tell us that the night for which we’ve longed
has come. The days of bondage reach their end.
The day is marked in blood and death, for which
I sorrow. Blood besmirches my door frame,
and spots the threshold where the lintel drips.
But first: we eat.

We did not have a massive flock to search.
Our neighbors had no flock at all. We sit
together at the table laid in haste.
A meal of meat is hardly everyday,
but we will eat tonight in deadly haste.
Yes, first: we eat.

Someday I’ll have the time for roasted lamb,
to savor and rejoice in sensory
delight. Tonight the flavor that I seek
is freedom’s sweetness dropping from the chin,
and so my staff rests by my sandaled feet.
But first: we eat.

A poem/prayer based on Exodus 12:1-14, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Reading for Year A, Proper 18 (23).

The image is “The Feast of the Passover” by Charles Foster – from Charles Foster: The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation Hartford, Conn., 1873., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59186517