Instructions to an Artisan

Into the rood wood, where the grain's current splits   

around the stones of its knots, carve eyelashes and eyelids.   

Dye the knots, too—indigo, ink-black, vermillion   

irises. These will be his eyes, always open, willing   

themselves not to close when dust rises or sweat falls,   

eyes witnessing, dimly, the eclipse that shawls   

the shuddering hill, Jerusalem's naked shoulder.   

The body itself? From a wick that still whiffs of smolder,   

wax, because wax sloughs a smooth skein on the fingers just   

below sensation's threshold. Prop the cross   

upright and let the tear-hot wax trickle, slow, clot, taper   

into a torso, thighs, calves, feet. Of Gideon Bible paper,   

thinner than skin, cut him his scrap of cloth; embed   

iron shavings in his forehead,   

and, as the wax cools, scrape the rust off an old fuel can   

to salt the whole wound that is the man.   

Cry, if you feel like crying, and if no one else is there.   

Then set it on the counter with your other wares.