Maxwell Bodenheim. The Crucifixion. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

The Crucifixion

By Maxwell Bodenheim


From “Charcoals” HER body was flowing and close-woven—
A slippery, whispering curtain which could not stop
Streams of dim gleams behind it.
One day with a long knife I cut a rent in the curtain:
I saw a soul nailed to a cross—	5
Slender, perfect-lipped, trying to laugh at its agony,
Counting its spattering blood-drops amusedly.
And somehow I could not find the sight dreadful.