Palm Sunday Bystander

Look for a good Palm Sunday poem out there, and you will find yourself cursing the inter-web in about a half an hour.  For inclusion in a service, they either are too complex (google Chesterton's "The Donkey" or Herbert's "Palm Sunday Hymn") or sentimental foam (google "every other Palm Sunday poem ever in the world").  With this in mind, I divided the difference between complexity and emotional custard, and wrote my own.  I hope it helps you worship some.  Cheers, Josh 

Palm Sunday Bystander

Let the gate open in Jerusalem,

Let the people run.

Another movement, another promise,

Another "Anointed One.”

Nothing changes, the days the same.

From sunset to sunset.

I’ve seen enough Messiahs,

And today I’ll hedge my bets.

And yet he enters differently,

A country boy, so young,

Riding in without parade,

No psalms are being sung.

Only he, on donkey’s back,

The beast of burden stamps, 

A rag tag group of followers—

Harlots, fisherman, and tramps.

The people run to love him,

The Pharisees speak warning,

And I can only stop and gaze, 

On this unassuming morning,

The slightest change, a brush of wings,

Not the just the noise and glare.

But the whole earth seems to draw the breath,

Of something different in the air.