the headspace collective

josh peters

  • 11:13:57 am on February 26, 2008 | # |

    DENIAL, a poem by Tamsin Kendrick
    DENIAL
    (Luke22v54)
    by Tamsin Kendrick

    My fingers are numb and knock
    stiffly against one other. Cold strangers.
    The coal and dung entwine and collapse
    to scorched earth. The fire takes its toll.

    Through the walls I
    hear the muffled thuds of torture.
    Is he crouched in a corner
    or tangled-knocked to heap?

    If these hands were unleashed
    they would be green thorns
    to his drop-blood, he blooms
    like burn-scars over this blasphemy.

    Walking with him
    we became the very best of friends,
    but now, nothing but darkness and ember.
    The smacks and thuds erase the garden.

    It seems I had a part to play,
    It seems I was on a track,
    it seems once knowing him
    there was no turning back.

    Are you not blood brethren?
    Are you not one of him?

    The crow is the heart’s dark trumpet,
    it heralds lost promises, boyish hyperbole.
    Through the wall the Nazarenes’ eyes
    focus on my tongue-heart. Suddenly all is bright

    as dawn crests my brow. Before dusk falls there
    will be another darkness. But for now,

    strike me down. I fall on his mercy.
    My own blood burns in my veins and denies not Christ,

    but me.

     

Comments

  • Hannah G 4:32 pm on 26 February, 2008 | #

    nice one

  • Pete 11:52 am on 1 March, 2008 | #

    Wow,
    What a beautiful poem…

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