Holy Week - I Was There Poem by Isam Hussain

The Passover is near,
a feast ever so dear.
Spring is in the air,
our hope, if we dare,
could come true this year.
The crowd began to cheer.

There was much commotion
as he rode to his coronation,
on an animal of lowly birth,
amid much gaiety and mirth.

His hair, long, black,
rubbed with oil, very sleek,
his eyes, melancholic, dark.
he had no beauty,
no earthly majesty.
His future looked bleak.

I saw him again on another day,
hanging on a tree at midday.
Blooded from head to toe,
his full nakedness on show.
I felt sadness and great pity
for the man mocked as INRI.

Three hours passed,
he breathed his last.
The sun hid its face,
Day turnrned to night.
I felt transfixed,
caught up in a trance.

I thought he beckoned to me.
I hurried and stood by the tree
just as the lance pierced his side.
Blood and water gushed forth,
bathing me, cleansing me,
giving me a new birth

Golgotha was transfigured into Eden,
the Tree of Life stood in the middle
offering its Fruit to all who seek it.
I turned away, a new life began.