accomplices

wordsout by godfrey rust
words from the cross 1 of 7 >

accomplices

father forgive them
they didn't know what I was doing
when I slipped into humanity disguised

my light shone in a darkness
they could not comprehend

forgive them all
my dear, dull accomplices
who don't know the cost
of an immortal’s suicide

they tried to keep us
from this meeting here

forgive the crowd
making the necessary choice of Barabbas

forgive Pilate’s wife
whose conscience nearly ruined everything

forgive Judas
his kiss of death

father forgive them
they don't know what we are doing

forgive them
they didn't know what they were building

we were architects
and these rough beams were cut
to meet our most exacting standards

forgive them
they don't know what will be executed here

how might they understand
these hammer blows would be
the final acts of our first creation

like workmen at the launch
of some great enterprise of state
they come to watch
the ceremony of our fierce ambition

and as they hoist me up to you
before this brutal act of love
extinguishes my mortal life completely
father forgive them
they don't know what they're doing

First poem of seven in the sequence words from the cross.