Friday, April 6, 2007

At Golgotha

Slowly the crowd grew tired of their own jeers
and began to leave. I swallowed,
tasting vinegar again. The few that remained
prayed on the ground below me,
clenching and unclenching their hands.
I noticed the sky, like a large animal
that had suddenly moved closer.
Then the first breath came. I remembered
the wooden boat shaking over the rapids
of the river's mouth, bumping
at the sea's gate. I remembered
running my hands over a newly
sanded board...then the second breath
and a singing as of wheels or leaves,
and I felt the clay pot
shatter, the great wings kick once
like a new heart. Then the third breath
gripped my body down through muscle
and bone to the small bell
of my birth, and I was gone.

Jay Leeming

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