Poems for Holy Week (V)

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.

JOHN 19:28-29

Sour Wine

 In the beginning was the Cross
And the Cross was with God.  And the Cross was God.
Moreover the depths: surf-stacked

 Towers tilting right, tilting left.         
Pass through,
Hurry now—over the long, dry tongue of sand.

I am the Lord upon many waters, I am the
Rung-out God, enthroned above the flood.
See it now?  These rivers of living water?
Tip your wine-soaked sponge to my split lips—
Yes, the wine is mine.  The water, too.  And the thirst.

-Sarah Crowley Chestnut

Christ on the Cross, Salvador Dali