Salvation's Parade

Nails were nothing new
To Your callused hands
Clasped in prayer
Hands that have known blood before
Wrung red in twelfth-hour negotiations
Willingly holding the cup full of sadness and horror
Then after that stinging kiss
Bound ropes around wrists
Stretched to receive nails
Flesh bone split open, admitting metal
We now fold our hands when we pray
To cover the embarrassment of
Spotless palms bloodless wrists

Unlike those who've thrust pricked fingers
To mouths stopping blood loosed from rose thorns
No amount of kisses could remove
The reddened streams
From Your lacerated forehead
Crowned with unpruned spears
Buried deep in the holy skull
Blood drops soak in Golgotha soil
Like salvation to fallow souls

Your side may have taken the spear
But Your heart
In submissive agony
Like turned cheeks
Was the ultimate tragic division
Heart halves torn
Like temple curtains
As west to east
Or transgressions
Blown like dry leaves
From dying trees
Before thunderstorms
Heaven's doors flung open wide

Splintered feet have known traveler's pain
And now this
The final step in salvation's parade