Because we have a donkey visiting Palmer today as part of our Palm Sunday devotions, I thought it would be polite if we took a moment to view this occasion from the perspective of our long-eared guest.  Of course, the donkey cannot speak for itself, but the donkey’s point of view was admirably expressed in a little poem by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936).

As he sometimes does in his poems, Chesterton seems at first to ramble on incoherently, making no sense at all.  But a surprise ending makes it all clear.

Hal Gordon

The Donkey
by G.K. Chesterton

When fishes flew and forests walked 
And figs grew upon thorn, 
Some moment when the moon was blood, 
Then surely I was born; 
With monstrous head and sickening cry 
And ears like errant wings, 
The devil’s walking parody 
On all four-footed things. 
The tattered outlaw of the earth, 
Of ancient crooked will; 
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb, 
I keep my secret still. 
Fools! For I also had my hour; 
One far fierce hour and sweet: 
There was a shout about my ears, 
And palms before my feet.