I saw an ascetic,
brown and wrinkled as a wild nut:
the birds and the beasts came to him
and the folk came out to him to hear his words,
but I came not to him.
This was not the Lord.
I saw a healer,
a teacher in a seamless robe,
come into the City,
into the Temple,
to turn the world upside down.
Was this the Lord?
Then I saw a man,
a naked prisoner -
one who had drunk and eaten,
loved and laughed,
and now had fallen into the hands of men -
hung bruised and bleeding on a cross of shame:
but this was no shame;
this was glory.
I saw you, O Lord of the Night.
