The Cross

The Cross

January 6, 2021


Empty his cross

took on a life

fame and infamy

of its own

Withered by sun and swollen the wood rotted down

Romans rotating home took mementos of their tour

symbols of conquest caked with soil and blood

One framed repentance

and hung it on the wall

Women came to

clean up its remains

to sell or to burn

with their spices

Raised now in 

pious memory

mimicry or mockery

Relic of salvation

splintered

severally


On January 6, as insurgents erected a gallows outside the US Capitol building in DC, others struggled to raise a cross outside of the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan

Still from a Twitter video by Christian Martinez, business reporter for LSJ News in Lansing, MI
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds AFP/Getty

About Rosalind C Hughes

Rosalind C Hughes is a priest and author living near the shores of Lake Erie. After growing up in England and Wales, and living briefly in Singapore, she is now settled in Ohio. She serves an Episcopal church just outside Cleveland. Rosalind is the author of A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing , and Whom Shall I Fear? Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence, both from Upper Room Books. She loves the lake, misses the ocean, and is finally coming to terms with snow.
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1 Response to The Cross

  1. Quite a juxtaposition.

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