“Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.” – Mark 10:49-50

“How strange. Do you see that?”

“See what? Oh, that? What is that, do you know?”

“I think that it’s a cloak.”

“Who’d leave a cloak abandoned
in the road like this?”

“I wouldn’t. That’s the thing that keeps
a being warm at night.”

“Let’s take a look. Perhaps the owner is
not far, and if we raise it, they’ll come back.”

“What’s that? It rolled away into the dirt.”

“Hang on, I’ve got it now. Look: it’s a coin.
It must have been entangled in the cloak.”

“You know, I’ve seen a beggar here
with such a cloak. He’d plead for coins…”

“…Which people threw upon the cloak.
You’re right. This must be his. But where is he?”

“I can’t believe he’d leave without his cloak.”

“I can’t believe he wouldn’t comb the cloak
to find each coin.”

“He’s not here now… and if he left without
the cloak…”

“I don’t think he’ll return.”

A poem/prayer based on Mark 10:46-52, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Reading for Year B, Proper 25 (30).

The image is a portion of an 1880s Maori man’s cloak, New Zealand, twined flax and wool pom-poms. Photo by Staff photographer, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art – https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/mans-cloak-7502667, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=118531677.