Judith Lethin

Antevasin

Antevasin: a sanskrit word meaning one who lives at the border, an in-betweener. A person who leaves the city to live at the edge where the spiritual masters dwell. One who has sight of both worlds, but looks toward the unknown.

I.

Antevasin,

The Companions live there,

on the border, away from the

center of the city;

we shelter

voles

driven by the heat of the day

into holes

beneath cactus and mesquite.

Hungry children

cling to mother’s skirts,

frightened children

disappear into the riffled folds

of fabric,

pretend an invisibility

impossible to achieve.

Dark places, riffled places,

habitat for a hapless god

who hides there,

In dark places and riffled places,

with us.

II.

The poor are drawn to the border,

chickens

drawn to the

bang of the old screen door

early in the morning;

drawn to the cluck, cluck of the

old woman and the

sound of grain swirling

in an old tin bucket;

drawn to the border,

to the silence and

simplicity of a place

away from the city,

away from the invisibility

of the city.

Chicks seek the

warmth of their own mother’s

thrust-down wings

and riffled breast

tremble.

III.

The Coyotes have come

to the edge,

the cut-off place

where dreams collide with violence

where spiritual masters collide

with mercenaries

who cut off the

heads of hapless dope sellers,

so many chickens

slaughtered on a Monday or

a Tuesday (it’s a job, you know,

somebody has to do it).

The bodies pile up

on the edge of the village

where voles hide and children

dare not go.

IV.

The Companions wait

in the still, cold church;

the funeral begins,

a father and son

found

in the pile

at the edge of the village.

Shhhh…….whispers the priest.

stay inside,

don’t show your face on Saturday

or you’ll be killed.

Chicken vultures look for blood,

timid foul take refuge

in the early morning

in cement houses

and adobe houses.

Humvees paid for

with drug money from America

rumble the streets,

shattering the early morning stillness,

shaking the fragile

walls and windows

and sensibilities of

passionate mothers

who fear for their sons lives.

Come home, they plead,

then riffle the folds

of their skirts

into ever widening circles,

until the cement houses and

the adobe houses

and the dust filled yards and

the pocked marked streets

are filled with the

riotous sound of their own

heart beat….

Come home,

stay home.

V.

Antevasin

leave their homes

and live on the edge,

away from the city,

where spiritual masters dwell.

Companions,

drawn to the border,

to the dark places

and riffled places,

bear witness,

with a hapless god

who bears witness with us.

Copyright by Judith Lethin

Biography

The Rev. Judith Lethin, the flying preacher,  a companion of the Fourth Order, grew up a cowgirl and never lost that wild edge. Judith is an Episcopal priest from Alaska. Her work has included innovative programs for alcohol and other drug treatment and suicide prevention in rural isolated villages. She is the President of the Board and founder of Our Lady of Las Palomas Interfaith Retreat Center, serving the poor of both New Mexico and Mexico.