THE BETRAYAL

"Cock Crow", Digital Painting by Alfredo "Ding" Roces, 1997

 

 

THE BETRAYAL

 

He is the one that I shall kiss: Jesus of Nazareth. ---Judas Iscariot

 

Who will do it, that His will might be done?

Not he who would deny him before cockcrow,
Nor fearful fishermen scrambling in the dark.
There must be a clean way, hidden from them.

Pilate will not hang him; look, he washes hands

Much like the whore who has just pleased him,
That he might not decree a wicked judgment;
After all, did I not choose the fairest of them all?

The one he has fished out to warm his cold bed

On bivouacs, clean his dirty toes with perfume?
I had to earn the pieces of silver for myself.
Must hie away from this wasted hole of wastrels.

The thief on the other tree proclaimed him ally

That he might be spared by those rabid rabbis.
Fool, he must perish like jackals before him,
Used like rags to wipe these asses’ behinds.

From my filthy ruse then, shall his promise

To save man from perdition become flesh, blood
Of the havoc that shall destroy Satan’s dominion
Over the Paradise that he said he will regain.

I will join my Master then, hanging from this Tree.

 

---ALBERT B. CASUGA

04-17-14, Mississauga, Ontario