elsewhere
a mother’s son
hangs from a tree
branch bobbing
body swinging
she hugs his legs
still swelling
kisses his feet
and weeps such that
no one can comfort her
such that no one dare
disturb grief this utter
someone cuts the rope
with the body still
in his mother’s arms
and it splats on the ground
with a sound only
lifeless flesh can make
her lamentations echo
all the way
to Calvary
James Green has published five chapbooks of poetry, one of which, Long Journey Home, was winner of the 2019 Charles Dickson Chapbook Contest sponsored by the Georgia Poetry Society, and his most recent, Ode to El Camino de Santiago and Other Poems of Journey, was just published by Wipf & Stock. His individual poems have appeared in literary magazines in Ireland, the UK, and the U.S. Formerly a university professor and administrator, he is now retired and resides in Muncie, Indiana. To learn more about James and his poetry, visit his website at www.jamesgreenpoetry.net.