(x = space)

x

x

Common Passion

(Lent)

x

O God, our help

Help me

Christ will be entering

Jerusalem soon

That’s too much for me

I wouldn’t go

I don’t like crowds

And as for all the blood

That follows

There was a crowd for that

As well

I’m not sure

Where I fit in

In the Passion story

To hear it, I suppose

Find my way to talk about it

Wish so much of it

Had not happened,

Starting with the first

Beating

x

Who are you?

What is your authority?

What is truth?

Skeptic questions

Without the thorns,

They could be honest

Without the torture

One might really want

To know

x

We can ask

Without all that

It’s been done for us

As story

As clean pages in a book

That might get stained

With water

Or with coffee

Accidents happen

So does providence

A week away

We’ll find out how it goes

I’ll take the quieter vantage point,

Thank you

After the crowds have gone

Maybe I’ll get a glimpse

Of the body

As it’s taken

Or the bodies of the thieves

Taken to paupers’ graves

Most likely,

Since there were no placards

On their crosses

Or on mine

Or maybe yours

Who were they?

Who am I?

Who are we?

We die without accord

Because no one knows

Our faces

Or our places

We die in a city at

The center of the Earth

Too much is happening there

Move on

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by 𝗔𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝘙𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘳 on Unsplash

x