One nail stared up from the cracked wood

A busy week in the life of sacred and profane poetry, I guess. America Magazine has just published the thirteenth station from my Stations of the Cross, "Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross."

This morning, I hauled to the street
A heavy wooden pallet, so beat
   The workmen had left it behind:

Its boards, rough-hewn and splintering
Against the asphalt.

To read the whole poem, click on the picture.

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