Even though they told her not to… she could not help but look.

Dutiful daughter, wife and mother, she had always done what men had told her she should do.

Head bowed in silent subjugation, the debilitating sameness of her days-

And then the strangers came saying she should leave and not look back!

The panicked flight the thunder clap... the bigger light behind her- casting shadows as she ran!

Why scrutinize what can’t be seen? Why disobey the dictum now?

Was it to spite her husband’s jealous God? Or avoid the secret shame that awaited her two daughters?

Or was it just a simple act of Self-determination?

“Why not?” she might have mused- “What have I to lose that was ever mine to start with?” just one glance while no one looked-

and so she raised her head.

but what they do not tell is this… that when they finally found her standing, looking over her right shoulder… at the corners of her frozen mouth,

Lot’s wife was softly smiling.

(poetry by Dane O'Hara)