Lenten Reflection
by Elizabeth-Anne Vanek

You thumbed grit
into my furrowed brow,
marking me
with the sign of mortality,
the dust of last year's palms.

The cross you traced
seared, smudged skin,
and I recalled
other ashes
etched into my heart
by those who loved too little
or not at all.


**************************************************

Mememto,homo,quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

Remember, human, that you are dust, and to dust you will return.

Genesis 3:19