JERUSALEM



In the city the crowd did push and pull,

To get a glimpse of an untidy man,

Riding a flea bitten animal,

They waved palm leaves and some of them sang,

Overjoyed that the king had come.



But this individual was an embarrassment to regality,

King of kings in his head, with obvious fervour,

A son of God with no power in reality,

Not likely to overthrow a Caesar,

A wise man, a fakir, a fashion.



Apparently, he had risen a man from death,

Apparently, an angel had spoken to him without breath,

He said that his father was all-loving and not authoritarian,

I could not see how this could belong,

Knowing how the world was run.



I was unimpressed with Nazareth,

He spoke with too easy a breath,

I felt his God was hollow and could not be,

Was he really of the divine family?

A charlatan more likely.



I was in the city emerged in my sin,

Business abounded for the real king,

I collected his taxes from rich and poor alike,

Paid well for my job with just dislike to dislike,

My sin was me to my very core,

If I could stop now then I would be poor.



I thought of Nazareth and his version of the good,

I knew that if Caesar was not to provide security,

Then nobody would,

It was sad that the poor should suffer for the quality,

But life is harsh with little surety.



Knuckle down and carry on,

Keep your head down, but not for long,

Forget the sin that is our life,

Try and avoid senseless strife.

　

Of course, fashions come and fashions go,

The priests were against him and the people did know,

Opinions turned and the irate voices did grow,

Until Nazareth went to Golgotha where blood and pain does flow,

He went as a criminal and departed just so,

Pharisees and Romans struck their blow.



And then I was summoned before priests of the creed,

They said I was just the one they did need,

For this Nazareth was just as disturbing in death as in life,

There were those attempting to make him a martyr and causing strife,

They commissioned me to Caesarea,

There to prosecute a trial to make it clear,

That the disciples were disturbers of the peace,

And that if peace should remain, then they should cease.



I was travelling along the road north,

For this mission I was going forth,

But the sin in my heart was burning clear,

I had to keep it down and not to fear,

Do my duty to the community,

Keep it running right and the people free,

From all the chaos that could emerge,

If I showed weakness and let the sin surge.



But the further north I got, the further the pressure came on,

My soul was a confused bird in a cage, warbling some song,

As we rode, the mid-day sun it shone,

Heat and dust and exhaustion,

Something flickered but not the sun,

It brightened to a strobing flash,

And darkness in the instants gone,

I fell to the ground, for I could not go on,

I was blinded, something was wrong,

Then the voice came to me,

When it was gone, I thought,

I had been blind but now I see.


The voice was that of dead Nazareth,

And it came without a breath,

He said it was not a sin that grew within,

It was merely the spirit of me that lived again,

It could not be kept down under,

Or else my mind it would sunder,

But had to be embraced,

The god in me must be faced,

I had to let it all through,

A bird that had been caged, it flew!

The spirit and the animal,

I am a person, not a tool!



As I stumbled up from my dusty wallow,

I realised, that is what Nazareth did follow,

His own spirit that was free,

It had killed him, but he let it lead,

And that was this man’s god,

It is life, and it is odd,

That god is life when you see it,

Reality and chaos and law, and you can be it,

Who knows how it works out?

There could be no reason, it’s just about.



I got to Caesarea in good spirits,

What would I do? I would be it,

I told them though I was the prosecution,

That the followers of Nazareth,

Were only involved in philosophical elucidation,

The Pharisees were not best pleased,

And they began the process of accusing me,

I relaxed in Caesarea, for what would be would be.



Being sent back up to Jerusalem,

To face a Roman judge on the count of subversion,

The judge correctly said that it was a matter of religion,

Quite clearly out of his jurisdiction,

He told me that the Pharisees had the right to accuse,

But the judge should be up to me to choose,

I contemplated that it may be a fuss,

But I chose Caesar, mighty Tiberius!

　

The sea journey to Rome did not go with ease,

For the captain of the ship had difficulty with the breeze,

I argued with my guards, although they were very kind to me,

For on the occasions we went ashore, I was more or less free,

The officer had great sympathy,

For he did not see why they were accusing me,

I told him that I had upset the order of the community,

But that was all necessary for the community to be,

He said that he found it hard to understand me.



I got to Rome and Caesar too, was kind,

He rented me a house that his agents did find,

I stayed for the duration of the trial,

Two years in full for I had put mighty Tiberius in a bind,

Nazareth had fought almost the same fight,

Was Rome to uphold the law, or cause upset with Israelites?

Peter the fisherman was also under investigation,

For crimes against the Jewish nation,

He was often my guest,

And maybe I did jest,

Though Peter was a serious rock,

It was I who deserted him, and most of our flock.



Emperor Tiberius ascended to heaven or Elysium,

Caligula inherited and we were undone,

The fisherman’s fate was equal to the messiah’s,

My friends came, and convinced me to conspire,

To leave for Spain, and live again,

I hereby admit, that I am not as brave as those men,

Nazareth could have left, but he faced the crowd,

What happened with Peter, I know not if it allowed,

For any decision on his part,

But I know he was a man of great heart.



So I retired to Spain in a rush,

I stayed without causing a fuss,

To my neighbours I was wise or a freak,

For I could not intimate much when I tried to speak,

Although it was the cause of my downfall,

On my heart it did call,

And forever a source of strife to all men,

I could not help but miss Jerusalem.