JUDAS
That evening, not so long ago,
The Master, fingers in the dish,
said gently: 'Did i not choose
you twelve, yet one of you's
a devil? 'Mocking, he glanced
at me; and others, quick
on cue, looked my way too.
The odd man out is always
Judas. 'We're from Galilee'
(Nasty little province,
smells of fish)
The Point is,
Jesus never trusted me
John, who's favourite, he's
from Galilee. Like Peter,
Andrew, all the cosy band.
Which Galilean, Lord,
will sit at your right hand?
Tonight I kissed him
and I saw
that mocking glance again.
'Betrayest thou the Master
with a kiss? ' he said, ironic ; -then
seemed pleasing or something
like relieved he'd got me
right. That knowing judge of men,
he surely ought to realize
that truths are often complicated:
what he spotted hr created,
distrusting with those distant
foreign eyes.
The point is not the money. I'll
go give it back. For, hell,
what's thirty bits of silver?
I would not sell
the Master, he's for free.Just
preserve my purity of hate
for him I served and loved well.
My Lord, the Master of my fate,
always withheld his trust.
By-Mervyn Eustes Morris.
