Cyrenian

They tell me –
those who knew you well –
you knew the way that you

would go – be taken – but
you were not taken, you
it was who took the way

I did not choose
but to accept
the fracture of the moment

and the scarred and scarring
weight of wood

I did not break
I undertook, believing
if I would struggle up the hill

to Golgotha then they
would let me go –
the Romans –

and they did
but you did not

Included in Poems 3.

Mary’s tears as a rite of passage. Anointing is to purpose, so her tears are a necessary component in Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem and his passion.