Long Friday

Grey sky
Snow falling
In hazy sunlight
Vast formless shapes
Swirling
Wind moving
Ceaselessly

Spruce and pine sway
Slender orange bodies
Breathe
Erect like temple columns
Spanning two worlds
Like He

In the chapel
Silent pews
A stripped altar
A cross of green glass
Psalm 22 prophesying
The death of a king
All candles extinguished
In the fireplace
No ashes

The crack of a whip
A bloody crown
Pilate
Trying him with the truth
Silence

A gaunt figure
Hanging from a tree
A voice crying out
The tears of women
Thunder
Darkness
The sound of cloth tearing

Depthless grey sky
Trees striving upward
In the chapel
An empty altar
A cross of green glass
Empty wooden pews


—Eric Nelson