I often wonder what he wrote the day he came upon

the stoning of the woman, the men that said she wronged…

He came up quietly and without pause, looked and said aloud,

“Any many without sin cast and cast it now.”

He then knelt a humble stance, and reached among the sand

with his finger began to write something with his hand.

He wrote until the he looked back up to see who was left to throw,

not one man had tarried there; they all had chosen to go.

He stood from where he had knelt and wrote upon the sand,

and the woman remained, to listen to this man.

The man that said, “Go sin no more” freedom now was hers.

I wonder what he wrote that day he knelt among the scores.

Was it their sins he knew so well and they in spirit heard,

and dropping all the stones they had, they left without a word?

© 2004

Christine McNeill-Matteson