“But Elisha said, ‘As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.'” – 2 Kings 2:2, 2:4, 2:6

You threw your mantle over me, Elijah, as I plowed the fields.
(You failed to mention that you’d taken that direction from the LORD.)
You would not pause to let me kiss my parents, no. But cook an ox
upon the fire of its yoke, and feed the neighbors? Yes. You’re strange,
Elijah. From that mantle day, I’ve clung to it and you. I’ve seen
your challenges to kings and queens. I’ve seen God’s fiery judgement fall.

So now you’d leave me, prophet of the trumpet voice, to serve your God
and speak to kings as if they had no soldiers to command. Have we
been walking on the road toward your death and burial? Should I
have asked the gathered prophets for a shovel, casting earth and tears
upon your stiffening form, just as you cast the mantle on my back
which stiffened, knowing that the furrows of my life would grow new fruit.

I said I’d follow then. I tell you I will follow now, despite the lack
of tools to dig or fill your grave. I’ll follow you across the stream
divided by your mantle’s touch, not knowing if I can return
to Jericho without a muddy swim and wade. I’ll follow you
though tears are all that fill my eyes, so that your spirit takes its flight
and I see nothing more than mist, despairing of your spirit’s gift.

Fire. Horses.
Galloping between us.
Whirling, swirling wind.
You rise beyond my grasping hand.
Father, no!
The chariots of Israel steal away my heart!

Your mantle falls.
I’ll cling to it
until my sobs have eased
and I can test
to see if God
is with me.

A poem/prayer based on 2 Kings 2:1-12, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Reading for Year B, Transfiguration Sunday.

The image is The Ascension of Elijah, Russian icon of the Novgorod school, late 1400s, by Anonymous artist from Novgorod – http://www.bibliotekar.ru/rusIcon/2.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4157865. Until I looked over Orthodox icons for this post, I hadn’t seen images of Elisha grasping Elijah’s mantle as if to hold him to the earth. It’s a powerful image.