Those Words So Powerful

by Jane Abao
(Philippines)

Came home one day to find my clothes
All over them as if
I were dead and dead.

Am I dead, I asked myself,
So why is everything gone then?
I ceased to exist just when I left?

I looked more at others and yes
There's no more me to speak of
Got nothing to call my own.

Find me a Bible, quick
Am losing myself, my hold
There's a cliff, am at the edge
And ready to fall.

The Bible came but lo!
Such cursings on the Book all over
Written by angry hands.

Yet hungry and thirsty I ate and drank
To fill my aching soul
And from the book I felt
the pain and sorrow of one

If they pierced my heart,
would they let you go
if they tore my flesh,
what would that make you?

I stood up with pain forgotten,
The powerful words for me in store
True Lord, they don't matter anymore!