A.A. Marcoff
The Soldiers Casting Lots for Christ’s Garments
(after the pen, Indian ink, grey wash & watercolour by William Blake)
three crosses stand in the central background, shown from behind through a darkness that is death: in the foreground are soldiers, very much seated on the dirt: as it says in the scripture: They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots [John 19.24]: listen to them now as they speak in shadows and owls and whispers:
let us divide these pieces of apparel: he claimed the world, but here we have him stripped bare of everything: here then, you take the moon, and you take the morning, and you the sun, and I shall keep for myself the stars:
three crosses rise up
vertically into the cosmos
for he was crucified
in dark matter
like light, like fire
Image Credit: The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) “The Soldiers casting lots for Christ’s Garments” Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/17466
About the Author
A. A. Marcoff is an Anglo-Russian poet who has lived in Africa, Iran, France and Japan. He writes haiku, tanka, tanka-prose and mainstream poetry, and lives near the beautiful River Mole in England.