at golgotha

this poem you will find
on the april 6..2007..post.. as well..
the good friday poem of a thousand lifetimes..

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