Crucifixus

Crucifixus

Claudia Kessel

After Bach’s Mass in B Minor

Dripping toward earth

diagonal chromatic

this blood
from flesh to wood
to soil crimson charcoal rivulets
all of us
inchoate sagging
falling loping toward decay
save me
from the horror of my skin
futility of labor
love’s sterility mind, bifurcated
pierce me
staccato nails
with your sulfur shocks
resolve me
into your opaque octaves
reap my core of being
it is ripe and yearning
for your scythe
will we ever be free
from our burdens
years wash away
blanched hollow as bones of birds
sour sky rice water
we speed down an eternity of highways
vast, vapid scalding, sordid
toward our demise
all that is left
gravel and grease ink of rubber
coyote’s crumpled fur
here I stand
at the serrated edge where youth crumbles
resurrect me
with flutes with strings with silver milk
with blossom dust of crape myrtle
won’t you align my soul

with your symmetry

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Claudia Kessel
Poet & Musician

Claudia holds degrees in music and public policy. She works as a grant writer and church vocalist in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her poetry has been published in Richmond Magazine as a finalist in the 2021 Shann Palmer Poetry Contest, awarded by James River Writers, in the 2024 Poetry Society of Virginia anthology, and in online and print literary journals Literary Mama, Uppagus, and Lullwater Review.

Photography by Kevin Mueller