In my month in Swaziland, Africa, I have joined a worship group. It is not just music and singing but writing. Last week we got the assignment of writing something from the perspective of a character in the bible. I chose to write from the perspective of the leper Jesus healed. Originally I titled it “Untouchable” but I chose to call it “through broken skin” instead. Here she is:

 

 

Enveloped in a shattered world.         

luxury to a man who knows no better 

I know not what is gold                   

Nor the glimmers of pure silver                    

A day spent amongst company              

Equates with a day spent alone          

Passing by as anyone would            

An isolation crescendo                       

the doorframe my window to life             

This scene is only ever what I view  

  

 

They have given me a new name       

They believe it to be Untouchable      

They see life as a game                      

Of which I am incapable                      

Deemed unworthy as a player            

Society spits and scoffs                      

A bunch of tellers and sayers              

Perhaps their hearts have been turned off.   

Even kind faces quicken their gait       

 

 

Other outcasts roam the same streets

They lunge at the chance to look down on me

I receive malicious greets

They refuse my testimony

In the trust sense, I am alone

I live in the well they made

I look up at them and they groan

Not a one comes to my aid

What if I am never seen

Always an ant on the sidewalk

 

 

But I hear the whispers that trace the street

I hear of a healer, a fisher of men

Jesus  descends the mountain

He brings along holy hands

In hope I step through my doorframe

I run to the crowds, leaving gasps of disgust

Breaching the multitudes, I fall to my knees

I look into the Lords eyes and plead,

Lord if you are willing, heal me

In gentleness he replies

I am willing