just 12

Just twelve years old
in the temple
asking questions
amazing the rabbis
just twelve years old
did you ask those men
about Noah
when You had called the animals aboard
did You ask them about Elijah
when You drove down in a blaze of glory
to carry the holy man away.
did You ask them about the furnace
blazing fiery oven
where You spent the good part of a night and a day
did You ask them about that shuttle-fish
meant for a run-away man of the Lord.
just twelve years old.
what were You asking those men?
and would they remember You
some twenty one years later
when those hands that questioned them
would be pierced at their demand
their final answer
to the Master
who once was twelve years old in the temple.