Ecce Homo
my favorite is one by Jusepe de Ribera
i guess you don’t just stop being Catholic
in the eyes on your baptized skin
in the catechisms piled like receipts
in the memories of sorting through saints
but no one can stop you from getting worse at it
i look at the narratives like a pagan in the crowd
with a face made like a fist, a fist raised like a spear
pleased to see he is as breakable as i am
i look on the devotionals
like a sadist
someone paid to have Christ look handsome, to make him haggard
miserable or unflagging
someone paid to make him look their way when they pray
a white brand of white skin, a cloak like suffering
someone paid to put him man-made, man-made-low in their room
but here he is
not demure nor ecstatic nor passionate
instead he stains you with a gaze like a bruise
a gaze that suffers unabsolving on its own