Credit Crunch Crucifixion Poem by Paul du Plessis

Credit crunch criminals
Each blaming the other
Asking that someone’s blood be spilt for corporate guilt,
But he says: ‘Father forgive, they know not what they do.’

Credit crunch credo
Pinned there by nails of over-indulgence
In the best and even better; overlooking the letter
He says: ‘Today you’ll be with me in paradise.’

Credit crunch cradle
Boomeranged back into her arms
The umbilicus un-severed, the arrows re-quivered
As he says: ‘Son, behold your mother.’

Credit crunch craving
Dregs of dried up assets, drained
By lending to a brother what we won’t recover
As his parched lips mouth the words: ‘I thirst.’

Credit crunch cries
Stigmatised into statistics; alone in the wilderness
Redundant and off the payroll, waiting for the dole
Hearing him say: ‘My God, why have you forsaken me? ’

Credit crunch crash
Shares plunging in life-threatening disaster;
With the mission completed, the enemy defeated
He shouts the cry of fulfilment: ‘It is finished.’

Credit crunch crisis
Ends in submission to the simpler life;
The dawn of a new creation, awaiting resurrection
We say: ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit.’

(April 2009)

Reflections on Christ’s Seven Sayings on the Cross.