“ashes” he will say “and dust” the cross applying

his thumb will mark with soot my head

and for a moment I will bear

the emblem of what I seek so hard to hide from my own self

the burned Palm fronds from last year’s

triumphal entry

will remind me of His triumph

but more so of my distance from Him

the smudge will be removed by my own hands

washed off with a restrained exuberance

trying to conceal from my own self

that I want the emblem gone

and it has nothing to do with embarrassment

or the questions of curious onlookers

but with the homily in ash, the proclamation

stained and screaming the truth to me

i do not want the ashes of repentance

but I do want the cross they form

and I know I cannot have one without the other

so I take the mark…for a moment

then the mask is reapplied

a light brow where the marked and furrowed once was

but the truth of the mark will linger

for it has been marked on my soul

oh God.

help me to embrace both ash and cross

mortality and eternity

repentance and life

from dust I have come

to dust I will return

but never merely and never only

for by the ash and the cross You have made me Thine