Thomas said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
—John 20.25
The drug dealer’s secret shame,
the car bomb widow, how she looks down streets,
the man with hollow eyes in the lock up unit,
everybody thinks it’s babbling, his praying,
the battered children and their fragile hands,
the illegal who cleans chickens and feeds her baby,
the father gradually forgiving himself
for failing his children,
and his children—
Thomas, you have only to reach out
and feel with your hand
the wounds of Christ
to behold your risen Lord