He is alive.

Some time later,
when the street vendors
had packed away their plastic crosses
and crown of thorn hats,
a small group of young people
gathered under His cross
and began to sing.
It was a sad song,
but no one looked as if they were sad at all.
This continued for some time,
then they just walked away
back down the hill towards their hotel,
evidently tourists.
No one paid much attention to Him after that.
Soon it was time for the big ending,
”Oh God, where the fuck are you?”
He cried.
This small deviation managed to tum only a few heads.
Mostly He was ignored,
just tolerated.
Then a small band of weary looking soldiers
marched up to Him
and started to cut Him down.
”Oh Christ,” said one,
”That was awful.”
”Mmmm,” He mused, ”I think we should go back
to the spear and blood routine,
spill a little blood, that always draws a crowd.”
”Yeah” said another soldier,
as he untied His feet.
”Well, that’s it.” said the first soldier,
looking at his watch,
” See you tomorrow. “
”Yeah, thanks.” He said,
”See you.”

More prose than poetry, 1976/77 or thereabouts.
I was interested in Christianity; I was and still am interested by all religions.
A few years beforehand I’d joined a Christian discussion group at school, just to see what all the fuss was about, I’d even bought myself a book, the discussion group recommended book I think, I remember it had a striking yellow and green cover, thin stripes of alternating colour with the words GOD IS LOVE picked out in the contrasting colours. A bit like the hastily drawn image below.

I read it front to back, hoping for some sort of enlightenment, not of a spiritual type, just something to latch onto, some steppingstone… I didn’t find it.

That being said, I’m still interested in and have a curiosity about religions but it’s purely an intellectual curiosity. As I’ve written before in this blog, I’m not religious, but I’m fascinated by religions and the god/man interplay. I’m not looking for salvation.

“Well, that’s your loss.” some may say, and I’ll not disabuse of their belief anyone who does say that, just so long as they realise that my beliefs are just as valid as theirs.