Limbs dry and calloused

Hobbling and stumbling

Yet without an ache

Nasal bridge sunken yet still detecting

The odour of ulcerated limbs

Disgusting even to me.

 

Eyes failing to close

With tears over-flowing

The blindness of an adherent iris

So that I cannot see myself;

Yet when the mirror remains silent

Know I’m not the beauty of holiness -

Unfit for the holy place

And the holy one.

    
   
   Coming as I am

   And welcomed as I am

   Received with respect

   By fellow-pilgrims

   Sharing stories on a journey

   That goes beyond Canterbury.

 

   Transformed in the relationship

   Of discovering a shared identity

   That survives rejection

   In fellowship proving our faith

   As we walk ahead;

   The beauty of wholeness growing

   As we approach the holy place

   And the holy one together.

 

   March 2010
 

   Photographs: André du Plessis
   Meeting Rebecca Mutanti, near Pemba, Zambia, April 2007 
  


Thoughts of friends affected by leprosy as we worked together on a paper for The Leprosy Mission International - Towards Transformation - A Journey in Diversity:

Click here for photographs from the 1970s: Leprosy at Chikankata