Magdala on the Via Maris
hosted the caravans;
Egyptian traffic”glass in ingots,
ivory, lapis, apricots,
papyrus, ostrich-feather fans;
the Magdalenes laid out their fish
for salting near the inns;
behind the fly-specked drying racks
day and night the willing women
catered to the Bedouins;under the towers of the town
the virgins and the wives
spun and wove and dyed the flax”
Magdala’s celebrated linen
smooth as young flesh: Crowds of lives”
the merchants and maids, the easy girls,
the cityful who spun”
who salted fish”and maybe one
remembered, and the rest are gone
into oblivion.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Genesis of Economics
We live, writes Italian economist Luigino Bruni in his The Economy of Salvation, in an exhausted age…
The Church of Ratzinger (ft. Sam Zeno Conedera)
In this episode, Sam Zeno Conedera joins R. R. Reno on The Editor’s Desk to talk about…
Pelvic Theology, Pelvic Justice
In a recent New York Times guest essay, Catholic writer David Gibson praised Pope Leo for moving…
