Nov PAD Challenge Poem #15

I wrote the rough draft of this poem yesterday at Victoria House where we meet for Morning Prayer and Holy Communion each Friday as part of Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity. While the strains of J's guitar lesson with Fr. Acker drifts down the stairs, I focused on the beautifully carved wooden crucifix hanging above the fireplace (not the one pictured above--this one hangs in the chapel) as I jotted these thoughts....

It's still very rough, but I have little time today to work on poems, so this is basically still in first-draft form.

The Nov PAD Poetry Challenge prompt for Day 14 was to write a crossroads poem, and somehow the crucifix provided the images for this response:

CROSSROADS
each breath heaves wetly,
each sigh agonizing--
lungs filling, filling,
fluid rising and choking.
pain unspeakable throbbing
in wrists, ankles, head.
blood mingles with cold sweat,
uncontrolled tears wash clean
the bloody face unrecognizable,
the broken jaw.
the beatings, the ridicule--
these were nothing, nothing.

the thorns forced onto head,
piercing scalp and forehead--
the royal robes draped over shoulders
raw with bleeding whipstrikes.
a scepter meant for a king
now all too heavy--
these were nothing, nothing.

unseen pain brought untold agony--
desertion, for the first and only time.
the weight of the entire world's people,
past, present, future--
all laid upon this body,
so thin, broken, bleeding, drowning, dying.
the wrongs, the injustice,
the lying, cheating, stealing,
the hatred, vice, murder--
all these submerged His Spirit
to a suffering never experienced
before or since--
more wrongs, more hate
poured into Him, upon Him, through Him--
he took it all, willingly--
only His final words betraying
the depth of His pain,
pain far beyond mere physical suffering:

"My God, my God...
why have you forsaken me?"

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

Sorry it's so rough--but it's a start.

Sad, thankful, and grateful,