A Poem For Good Friday

“Petition” by Franz Wright:

Kneeling
at the foot of the universe

I ask

from this body
in confusion

and pain (a condition

which You
may recall)

Clothed now in light
clothed in abyss, at the prow
of the desert
killed
Into everywhereness—

have mercy

Mercy on us all

(From God’s Silence by Franz Wright © 2006 by Franz Wright. Reprinted with permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Publishers. Image: Antonio Ciseri’s depiction of Pontius Pilate presenting a scourged Christ to the people, 1871, via Wikimedia Commons)