Leah and Twen, drawing by Isabel Chenot
Isabel’s illustration is of Leah Sharibu and Twen Theodros, two Christian prisoners she prayed for all last year. Both were promised freedom if they would renounce their faith. Neither did. Twen was released from a prison in Eritrea in late 2020, and Leah has
recently given birth to a second child in captivity with Boko Haram, in a forced marriage.
Read more about Leah at Voice of the Martyrs: www.vomcanada.com/ng-leah-sharibu.htm
And more about Twen at: www.churchinchains.ie/prisoner-profiles/twen/
After Dark
(Reading the gospels, I always thought the worst bit for the disciples would have been when Jesus was being dragged around, condemned by a kangaroo court, beaten, or
hung up helpless. But it struck me lately that the worst bit might have come after that, when the powers stood grim watch over the corpse. This poem is based on the description of those hours in Matthew 27:57-66.)
The power of the stone
and of the sword
and of the holy sect
stood guard.
What could two unarmed women do
against that force
of stone and sword and holy sect—
but watch the doors
at which a weaponed, federated world
sealed with gross power
its rampant hate, its most audacious lie,
its killing-hour.
But God—
behind the stone, beneath the sword, beyond the sect
was hiding.
But God—
watched by the weak and by the wary, unchecked
strong—was biding.
_________________
Isabel Chenot’s work has appeared before in Spirit Fire Review, as well as in
Indiana Voice Journal, Assisi, Avocet, and Blue Unicorn, among other journals.
For a preview of West of Moonlight, East of Dawn, her retelling of an old fairy tale,
visit westofmoonlight.art.
May 2021 issue