Martha In The Chapel 1963

The crucifix in the chapel

is too unreal.

Yes it has nails

in hands and feet

and a painted wound

in the side,

but it isn't real,

too sanitized.

Martha gazes at the hands,

how they are slightly

touched by nails,

but no sense

of the dragging body

pulling the hands,

the body of the Crucified

has scarcely any

wound of flogging,

no blood oozing

from the crown of thorns.

She touches the feet

crossed and nailed.

No nun comes

to chide her absence

from class, no noise,

just her and the Crucified,

touching and whispering words,

but no blood,

no scourging wounds,

possibly too gruesome to reveal,

seeing the image

but not no sense of how

it would feel