Nole Me Tangere

And Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “Do not touch me,
for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” ~John 20:17

Whoever wrote these words

 was still a pilgrim

searching for dawn.

But you have made friends 

with the dark.

You know that Magdalene 

is an electric breath 

of Jesus

flowing through your nostrils,

your throat, your belly, your loins.

And if you listen, she will tell you

what he really said

that morning in the garden:

Touch me.

Feel the shock

of my sweetness.

I will lift your whole body up

into Love’s energy.

As wine mingles fruit 

with spirit in one cup,

my flesh and your longing

are a single grace.

Savor my caress, 

for Christ is not

an out of body

experience, but a sip

of the burgundy void

in the grail of every cell,

the nectar of crushed stars

in a proton of lymph.

Your nerves

are on fire

with God.

A poem from my book, 'Strangers & Pilgrims.'
Art, the Magdalene by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.