The Servant Girl at Emmaus – a poem by Denise Levertov

The Servant-Girl at Emmaus (A Painting by Velazquez)

 She listens, listens, holding

her breath. Surely that voice

is his – the one

who had looked at her, once, across the crowd,

as no one ever had looked?

Had seen her? had spoken as if to her?

 

Surely those hands were his,

taking the platter of bread from hers just now?

Hands he’d laid on the dying and made them well?

 

Surely that face – ?

 

The man they’d crucified for sedition and blasphemy.

The man whose body disappeared from its tomb.

The man it was rumored now some women had seen this morning,

alive?

 

Those who had brought this stranger home to their table

don’t recognize yet with whom they sit.

But she is in the kitchen, absently touching

the winejug she’s to take in,

a young Black servant intently listening.

 

swings round and sees

the light around him

and is sure.[1]

[1] ‘The Servant-Girl at Emmaus.’ The painting is in the collection of Russborough House, County Wicklow, Ireland. Before it was cleaned, the subject was not apparent: only when the figures at table in a room behind her were revealed was her previously ambiguous expression clearly legible as acutely attentive.