Good Friday Among the Tombs

"Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse."
-- Deuteronomy 21:23

Through what keyhole did that death lead,

the one on Golgatha

to which Christ took his last heavy steps

carrying his cross

seeping blood

like a fresh slaughtered lamb,

like a woman

in the throes of

miscarriage

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We remember the dead

we clean their graves

paint their sepluchres

bring them offerings

fruit, flowers, photos, gifts of paper and stone.

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we whisper words of thanksgiving.  memory.  promise.   regret.

almost always regret.

and still the dead stay dead.

Until, with God's own death, the key begins to turn.