Lavish Love

Julia Stankova, The Anointing of Christ

It was lavish love

luscious and lavish

and I still don’t know what made me do it.

 

I wanted to show my love for this man

and words failed me

for words could never express how I felt.

Words would never be enough

so I had to make this act of lavish love.

 

And quickly the aroma of spices

filled the air in that darkened room

rising from my hands and his feet

until everyone was breathing deeply

of that precious ointment,

inhaling its exotic scent.

 

Somehow I knew we wouldn’t have him with us

much longer.

I knew that he was going to leave us

like orphans in the dark

and I sensed that death was in the air

I wanted to take away that premonition of the end

to fight it with all my might

to smother it with anointing oil.

 

My tears mingled with the ointment

when I heard their raised voices

but when he put his hand on my head

they fell all the more

for I knew he understood.