Good Friday - thanks to Bronwyn for this

AND A GOOD FRIDAY WAS HAD BY ALL 

 

You man there keep those women back

and God Almighty he laid down

on the crossed timber and old Silenus

my offsider looked at me as if to say

nice work for soldiers, your mind's not your own

once you sign that dotted line Ave Caesar

and all that malarkey Imperator Rex

well this Nazarene

didn't make it any easier

really - not like the ones

who kick up a fuss so you can

do your block and take it out on them

Silenus

held the spike steady and I let fly

with the sledge-hammer, not looking

on the downswing trying hard not to hear

over the women's wailing the bones give way

the iron shocking the dumb wood.

Orders is orders, I said after it was over

nothing personal you understand - we had a

drill-sergeant once thought he was God but he wasn't

a patch on you

then we hauled on the ropes

and he rose in the hot air

like a diver just leaving the springboard, arms spread

so it seemed

over the whole damned creation

over the big men who must have had it in for him

and the curious ones who'll anything if it's free

with only the usual women caring anywhere

and a blind man in tears.

Bruce Dawe

Australian Poet - 1964