Poem by Joseph A. Farina
Black-clad nuns yardsticks in hand command attention on the day of Christ's crucifixion classrooms divided by gender readying to march to the waiting church where we are to pray the stations of the cross girls heads covered with handkerchiefs, scarves or brown paper towels. boys shirts tucked in respecting the rules of proper dress in the house of god within the Lenten draped church we begin the 14 step recreation of the sorrowful way of christ's passion and death prayers at each station reverberate heads bowed, one eye always on sister we endure the too long annual rite waiting, waiting till the last station our faces showing the requisite sadness where we can leave respectfully in line the early dismissal from school we run home to enjoy the pleasures of the pagan symbols and rites of easter
Joseph A Farina is a retired lawyer and award-winning poet in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. His poems have appeared in Philadelphia Poets, Tower Poetry, The Windsor Review, and Tam.
