Lot's wife looked back.

They say she had second thoughts,
lacked trust,
doubted God's decision.

But it was love turned her head,
love for her fleeing daughters
(already traumatized beyond reason),
love for her abandoned sons.

It was heartbreak at the incineration
of friends and neighbors,
of woman gathered in the market,
of children playing at daycare.

So there she stands,
saline statuary,
salt-lick sculpture,
a woman in white
waiting for spring rains
to return her to the earth,
one day to be harvested,
reborn in soup and bread,
again to give life.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.