Poetry

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Coiled on a cot ‘neath
The night’s dark blanket
While Eternity bids for
Your soul

It’s a night for Betrayal
And you’re center stage
All the players have scattered
Like stones

There’s no pointing the finger
You’re thick in the blame
No one knows this better
Than you

And didn’t He tell you
A short time ago
Though you refused His prophetic
Portend

And now here you lie
Two days have gone by
Since that time every word has
Come true

That night by the fire
In confusion and fear
And a woman that would not
Relent

“I don’t know him,” you cried
Somehow you believed it
Though you spent three years as
His friend

And again and again
You said for good measure
To make sure there was no doubt or
Mistake

The look in His eye
As he passed on by
And the crowing that sealed
Your fate

What you would trade
To play that night over
Is not up for sale or
Auction

You could go the way
Of that miserable Coward
And dangle your grief with
A rope

But how could you face
Those Eyes once again
With death on your hands
Self-stained?

The blood on His face
And his hands and his feet
You couldn’t bear to defile with
Your own

It’s a guilt with no end
That tortures the soul
And heaven is holding
A grudge

Your spirit is wracked with
Guilt and with shame
Even Judas had coins he
Could throw

So where do you go
And what do you do
Once you’ve denied the Master
Of all?

There’s no going back
Undoing the damage
You’re sins are sealed
In a tomb

You slapped God in the face
What more could you do
To fuel your shame
Forever?

You felt really brave
When you flashed out a sword
But you failed the test when
It counted

And Rome’s cracking down
On religious pretenders
The streets they aren’t safe
Any more

The Temple is filled with
Traitors and squealers
They’ve thrown in their lot with
Caesar

So you hide in the dark
With the night as your Judge
Never hoping to again see
The Son

And you tremble in fits
Your body in shakes
As your soul cries out from
Its wrong

Now the sun cracks the sky
Into interminable day
You recoil from facing
The Light

And the girls shriek below
With some gossip or news
They live in their tiny
Small world

They’ll never grasp
They can’t possibly know
About matters sublime and
Eternal

You can’t face your friends
Their silent accusing
Is mixed with their demons
Of guilt

But a day like another
Plain and mundane
Awaits like a lingering
Dirge

You reluctantly rise
Though your conscience protests
You’re not welcome to walk on
This earth

The women keep shouting
Though you’ve got bigger problems
Better see what the noise
Is about

And so on you trudge
Stumbling a shuffle
To oblivion that once was
Your life

What’s in store that awaits
You can hardly surmise
But maybe you’ll forget for a
Moment

Something that’s nagging
At the back of your mind
Some words or a story
He said

But it matters not now
It was all just a dream
And you pray that today it
Will end

And the end of all endings
Or the beginning of all
What difference is a day
To forever?

Or forever to a day
When Eternity’s gone
And buried in the cold
Dark ground?

But the women shout louder
Better give them a hush
And start your Forever
This day

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