The Stations of The Cross - Tenth Station
Jesus is crucifiedMark 15:24
More than I care to admit
I still think about it
In that hot country where I served
With comrades, men trained for war,
Keeping the peace among those
Strange people, disliking each other,
But hating us more
The worst duty, crucifixion of another zealot,
With my company detailed to carry it out,
After the trial had gone on for hours,
With their priests against our Governor.
While I stood with the prisoner,
Joshua Ben Joseph. Strange that
I can still remember his name
Good lads in my company,
Used to carrying out their duty.
Even so, it didn’t sit easy with us,
Executing that man.
There was something about him,
We could see that he
Wasn’t the usual fanatic.
So, we whipped him along,
With the odd spear butt in his back,
To show the crowd, who as usual,
Were divided, some for the prisoner,
But more jeering and spitting at him,
Making more trouble than it was worth.
Trouble to kill a man for.
At Calvary he was already done in,
Looking around as though
He shouldn’t be there.
Nobody dies well on the cross
That was the point of it,
So, we did our duty, not liking it,
But not making it worse than it had to be
So, we got him stripped,
And we got him nailed up,
And we did it as soldiers
Immured to the job.
The custom was that his worldly goods
Was shared equally between us,
And I saw it was done for the best.
As some of it was quite nice,
For those we rolled the dice.
I can still see the lads squatting,
While his legs flexed on the rest.
Now, I sit on my terrace in the alps
With a glass of cold wine.
Remembering so much.
That day the world changed,
But we didn’t know it then,
It was just another crucifixion.
But there was talk, and so it began.
Now I’m just an old soldier, but
They still come to ask me again,
About what I said then.
But no, I still don’t know,
But what I do know though,
Is that an innocent man died,
And surely, that was enough.
Images from Wikimedia Commons: Jörn Droemann.
© D G Moody 2023
Poetry by D G Moody
Read 228 times
Written on 2023-04-10 at 16:42
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