457 - Purple Dirge

Purple Dirge

By Kathy Coffey

During an anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town, South African police sprayed protesters with purple dye, so that those marked by it could later be detained. --Associated Press news item

These thug-police choose color well.
So Pilate draped the purple cloak.

Purple that tinted grape and wine
shaded distant hills, clothed kings
Now stains skin,
rains on unsuspecting royalty
who crowd the cathedral
where Tutu rallies a
soaked and injured crowd:
"All moral right is on your side."

Dye can't dam that energy,
nor Lenten garments veil
the resurrected Christ.

Kathy Coffey teaches English at the University of Colorado, Denver, and Regis College. Her work has appeared in America, Spiritual Life, National Catholic Reporter, Marriage and Family, Catechumenate, Christian Science Monitor, Praying, and The Christian Century. Her poetry has appeared previously in THEOLOGY TODAY.