Golgatha

It hurt worse than expected,
feeling my soul pulling free,
like meat off a bone, like arriving
when she told me Joseph died—
I knew, but now I Know.
Drunk with pain, down to go deeper,
to get under all of it, down under
the staggering load.

It was hard to be there for it, hard
to see her seeing all of this, hard
to explain, even if I could have,

that it was all merely a stage,
the necessary pain, evil, darkness,
delusion.

And then it began.