The Road to Emmaus
(after Luke 24 v.13)
 
"For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.'

Gerard Manley Hopkins, from "As kingfisher's catch fire".
 
 
Why go to Emmaus
why go on such a disturbing day
full of that sense of loss 
and idle tales
Emmaus is a long walk
so far that the day
on reaching it
 is almost spent
 
Why go to Emmaus at all
did one of them have a house there
Cleopas whoever he was
have a house there
a place of consolation
for getting out of the city
to be safe and alone in
 
They had companionship
imagine I or you
travelling alone
with no conversation
just a rumination
on loss
inside the skull
 
Then to meet the stranger
whom you thought knew nothing
about your life's events
perhaps seated
opposite you on the train
randomly seated
with a college bag
and headphones on
or eating a sandwich
or at a deserted bus stop 
needing help there is
a crossing of pathways

Yes if you were alone
with no ghostly third
nothing reduced to some kind
of compensation of the mind
on journeys that are rarely
all that necessary
 
Maybe now in late November
towards an evening
with the spent sun low
in a cold sky
meeting the stranger
on the bus or train
and the phones come off
and your eyes are held
in  whatever way

Obedient you listen intently
trying to open your heart
though not quite succeeding
waiting to hear what he or she
may have to say