Sheela Stations

Prologue: I am female stone Death has made me stone Above the waters High in the arch Where the believers pray And sing their prayer I am singing stone, Stone faith, stone memory, Stone witness, stone truth, Stone sex, stone birth Birth has made me stone. I am fertile stone Everlasting life Has made me stone, Has made of my flesh, Singing prayer stone, Above the waters High in the arch, I am life from death of stone, A church of fertile Female stone For all and every time. Now, in the end As in the beginning… I Jesus is condemned to death …death. The smell of soldiers. Water brings death. The blood red of your garment Breaks reflected In the shattered innocence of the bowl Of water. The fingertips of condemnation Paddle in the pool Of Eternity. The soldier’s cry startles Time The whip raised tears Time. Yet, there is Time and there shall be Time For the smell of soldiers For their cry And for their tears. II Jesus is laden with the Cross The pillars are gathered round you Like a huddle of shameful witnesses. Walls of court, church and tomb Stand silent. Silent witness breaks As hard as stone breaks As hard as the breaking heart breaks How can witness see, hear, speak While on your back The Cross is lain? Witness must be stone Here and now, forever. The pillars grieve! Stone voices silent roar! III Jesus falls the first time Was it stone under your feet that tripped you And sent you sprawling to the ground? Stone that embraced you as you fell? Beneath the crowd’s stare Beneath the soldier’s menace The Earth gathers you Violently into its arms Woman stone of love Unending witness Holds you Lifts you up Faithful unto Death To this new Birth. IV Jesus meets his afflicted mother …death This is the stony way. In the path of your Cross A mother strays Your eyes see and cry For her eyes Dear Mammy Dear lovely Mammy A son to save the world And dear lovely Mammy Alone with death… Alone Please don’t leave me Alone… I love my Mammy! Break this stone! V Simon helps Jesus with the Cross What is this man? He could be my father… Balding, grey, Broken with years. He leans to the task Lends hands to the task Lifts the Eternal world Towards the inaccessible sky And succours Time… Doubling to the Cross He helps to carry it. And heaves the fragile wood Of Time Back towards the heart Of the Universe. VI Veronica offers Jesus a towel She is flashing green The sky flashes behind her Like a tear in the darkness. She is perfumed and sweet Her hands are kindness. She kneels to wipe away The tears, the blood The sweat and pain From his face Soft woman He leaves an imprint in her Like a footfall in stone But soft… not hard… Eternal! She is witness And has become His remembered image Made of her cloth. O Veronica Constant stone True memory Truth made woman. VII Jesus falls for the second time Unrelenting stone of witness Pulls down yet again The silent word To witness Time In a dying world. The stones cut And bleed. Grey, red stone Like chunky, brute Diamond In the broken earth. VIII Jesus consoles the women On their knees They pray. The sharp stone Cuts their knees. Their voices keen The breaking sky The broken world The death of Time. As he stumbles past He somehow touches them This is no present That will last But future that consoles you… Be as stone And wait The melting happiness Of tomorrow’s myriad Bright loves. Peace be with you! IX Jesus falls a third time Do you fall Seeking respite Or the hope of flowers? Do you look up seeking In a dark sky The possibility of stars? The sky too Like the earth Is stone… In death you are alone. On the crest of the hill you see They are already waiting, bleeding, Hoping to steal Time Of its victory. Rise up! Stand up! Death sings your name To the Eternal. You are nothing You are Salvation. Your Time has come. X Jesus is stripped of his garments His mother watches Woman stone Her son Made dying flesh Made Naked light Torn and bleeding. Shabby-bodied Naked witness A thing Of mud and blood And every filth Like some prisoner to Time Pulled out of a toilet somewhere Coughing and spluttering His guts up. Like some shadowed, hopeless thing Put down with a bullet In the night. Like a soldier tortured Stripped of his clothes And left for dead. Naked skin Crushed by naked stone. The naked heart of the world Ground down to perfect Naked Pain Under the crowd’s grinning triumph. XI Jesus is nailed to the Cross Sharp! Every nook and cranny Of stone Feels the pain that never dies. Sharp! Again and again Stone screams as The Hammer falls. Sharp! Sharp! Sharp! Sharp! Steel! XII Jesus dies on the Cross …death. Now it’s Time. The rivers fill and run And water sings Under the singing stone Under the high arch. Singing female stone Gazes out upon The green fields The blue heaven The golden hills that reach Towards Eternity. Fertile stone sings This bright day of Birth. This afternoon A white sky like dawn Spreads on the horizon Above the river’s Strange serenity. XIII Jesus is taken down from the Cross Her hands that often held him Cuddled him as a baby Sheltered him as a boy Blessed him as a man Now hold him torn And sundered stone In her hands she gathers The rubble of Time And holds it bleeding A long while His wounds kiss her garments And her hands Goodbye He who was born in her arms Is now dead in her arms. No memory of tears will wash away From her His stain. XIIII Jesus is laid in the Tomb Stone. Imprisoning stone. Stone all around you. Stone of silence Stone of death Stone of the grave A Night of stone. A World of stone An Eternity of stone Hard as stone To see now is to be stone To witness now is to be stone These truths of stone I cannot hold My stone sex breaks It breaks Epilogue: Not a whisper. Not a breath. Not a word. My silent sex Deep in stone Embraces the silken dawn Kisses the morning sun Bathes in the honey lawn Caresses the river’s run. In the fields In ruins In the darkened undergallery of museums Entombed Silent stone witness Sings of truth, of faith, Of hope, and charity. Stone of Memory Stone of Truth Stone of Light Stone of Witness Stone of Life Stone of Love Stone of Heaven Stone of Happiness Stone of Eternity Be true to us! Emerge from Time Woman Stone Fertile Stone! Female Church of Stone Redeeming Stone Give us …Birth! For Stone is Risen And Stone shall never die.