The Rosary Poems: Sorrowful Alison Shaffer

Crucifixion

What I have written I have written.
JOHN 19:22

He is no man, whom we raise up—
his ribs brittle like a serpent’s
beneath the crusted blood flaking
from him like scales, his chest
hollow, like a serpent’s, his mouth
hanging loose, so open
he might swallow us whole—
no man can survive our need,
only this poison we drain from him
and the sight of what heals us.

 

February 2005 2River