In Veneration of the Cross

In Crucis Venerationem
In grave serene ceremony
On the best Good Friday last
Our Lem processed the solemn Cross
In the rite for which we’d massed

The Cross was made of saplings cut
One of six foot, one of four
Bound together with old twine wound tight
Short over long, a third way down

She laid it on the Chancel floor
She bowed to one adored
Others came and kneeled the same
In reverence to our Holy Lord

Then I approached this relic blessed
Mindful of it’s consecration
I kneeled and with a hand unstressted
I raised it high in veneration

As a Simon of Cyrene
I was glad to take the weight
And belleiving it was true to Rite
I raised it to a great height
That I might share and lighten His load
That I might carry His burden,
I preyed that it were mine to carry too

Dizzy, looking up in my own hands I saw
These simple sticks were no innocent token
But a grievous tool of a mighty oppression
An instrument of Rome’s tyranny by fear
As a stake to the martyrs of olde
As a noose and electric chair to the falsely accused
As a concentration camp to the undesirables of War
Or a white hood to the freedom riders for Civil Rights

I could bear it’s increasing weight no longer
As it slid down on my back
It sought my soul and will to conquer
And power to speak I lacked
My back sealed to a rod too stiff for breath

It hung my arms over it’s arms
Like a yoke across my back the Cross wore me
Intent to weigh me down in stifling subjugation

I wept for the pain of Death, and dying
In the abandoned torment of the cross
With friends and family helpless watching
I thought there all was lost

But though spare, my voice;
"Will you be martyred by faggots?"

Then finding a strength un-natural
I pressed against the rod, I pressed against the staff
I forced the cracking on the bar and then the splintering of the gaff 
Until they rent useless in my hands, overthrown and routed
There I split the Cross to kindling, pnuk and tinder on my knees

I broke the Rirtual that placed the Ritual above the Faith
I broke My Word that no new Word could be The Word
I broke the Faith that this Faith is mine and that Faith is yours
I broke the Law that made the Law above our Love
I broke the Truth that made the only Truth a Politic
I broke the Chain that Chained all of us to servitude
I broke the Contract that Contracted all of us to usury
I broke the Lease that Leased us back our own land
I broke the Mind that Minded what I’d just done
And I broke the Cross that Forswore our obligation
to our neighbors, our brothers, our sisters, our parents and our children
I broke it all, because I Love You.