The angels said, “You men, you men, you men
Of Galilee, why gape you at the sky?
Have you once more and yet and yet again
The point of this let slip so blithely by?
He’s gone,” they said,” and will return someday
When all of time shall finally overspill.
But that’s a long-long, long-long ways away.
For now we would advise you quit this hill.
Do you remember not the words he said
Before he cloudward in his glory flew?
You are to all the world his message spread.
He really gave you quite a bit to do.
And since you clearly lack get up and go,
Expect the Spirit in ten days or so.”
Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them America Magazine, Dappled Things, the St. Austin Review, U.S. Catholic and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate, with work upcoming in First Things. He is editor of the Catholic Poetry Room.