My mates mean no harm
- they just lit a mock Judas
with fireworks and a petrol flame.
After all, we’re his enemies
so why not dance and kick ass,
enlightening all the darkness?
He sold the Big Man short
by dobbing Him in to the guards
so, when the fire dies,
we’re strong and hard enough
to torch this place
with a blaze of our own tough love.
Welcome to a market in Spain
where there’s a statue of Jesus at Easter
holding up one hand
from a thrown-cloak of red satin.
Close by – women statues - and a
carpet made of palms
where he treads in slow steps and
raises that left arm.
Everything seems new in late March:
he has a shining face,
gleaming and bright-eyed.
Around his fingers, a light touch
and I get the sense of heading into space
slowly – like in a crawl
with a bending neck; astride
his shoulders a cross, that’s all.
I find a word
on a galloping journey
and wonder, wonder
what to do with my new found word?
I could breathe it out and cut You.
I could use it to cut into Me.
I could throw it – plop – into an ocean.
I could bury it deeply – dug with a weapon
or I could hold it gently;
notice a shape, a tingle, a texture;
a thumping background rhythm
and I could make an offering.
Extraordinarily,
I could let it be.
Time to speak. We’re sitting in a circle
uttering poems in a very British
order. A lady
reads the Lord’s Prayer – a new translation
from Aramaic - and – it’s not even a poem!
Rhymes and meter missing,
as far as I can hear.
Upsetting. Right -
but the room seems to quieten -
listen - and vision
softens, blurs - as if -
kind of – hard edges turn gorgeous, creamy
and a rosy heart settles,
well, into silence.
‘10 minutes in front of us
we got a problem there;
I’m not aware of it all,
we’ll have to sort it out’
‘Ladies and Gentlemen,
train guard speaking!
East Coast apologises for the delay
- we have a technical fault’
and - testing, testing - over the tannoy
Milton, blind as a mole, squeaks
‘They also serve who only stand and wait’
and Davies, hobbling on one leg, barks
‘A poor life this if, full of care,
we have no time to stand and stare’
