Pieta at Nain by Mary Taylor

Mourning for an only son,
the widow, bereft, follows the bier.
Two crowds meet, the one alive and excited,
the other occupied with the offices of death.
And in the middle, Jesus;
moved by compassion;
moved by seeing into the future;
Jerusalem-bound with Mary, his mother.

The time scales slip.
There will be a long pieta.
And not until the third day will the son
be given back.

But for now, the widow is blessed,
‘God has favoured us!’
‘A prophet is amongst us!’