A child finds a soiled scarf
in a chest of heirlooms.
Her mother tells her:
Your great-grandmother Veronica
had a ringside seat
for one of those messy executions.
Jesus wasn’t respectable then
as he’s getting to be now.
Granny was just a girl
but she reached out and blotted
his bloody face with her new veil.
Her family was furious.
Veronica kept that piece of cloth
all her life. Asked for it at her death.
It had mildewed or something,
like the print of a face.
Granny whispered, “My Lord’s face,
I see it,” and died smiling.
You won’t believe this, but collectors
have offered me money
for that old rag.
Inflation being what it is
I’m holding out for a better price.
See the mouth, the eyes?
Granny was quite a girl.