The pastor details his hunch about the cross

Christian Century, July 24, 2007 by David Wright

The pastor details
his hunch about
the cross

   And conjectures, and offers
   a few ways to take down
   the body, the God who carries
   a taste for blood. On the altar,
   before him, an empty simple
   cross, and a purple bouquet,
   one of which, he doesn't say,
   was arranged, and one which
   happened, he knows, against
   serious, best judgment--

   the way you might extend
   a hand to an enemy, suspecting
   the risk, knowing better
   but offering and retracting
   your bared palm over time
   like a bud or a bloom opening
   to a violet spring sky.