Now with the full year Memory holds her tryst <br />Heavy with such a tale of bitter loss <br />As never Earth has suffered since the Christ <br />Hung for us on the Cross. <br /> <br /> <br />If God, O Kaiser, makes the vision plain: <br />Gives you on some lone Calvary to see <br />The Man of Sorrows Who endured the pain <br />And died to set us free -- <br /> <br /> <br />How will you face beneath its Crown of thorn <br />That Figure stark against the smoking skies, <br />The Arms outstretched, the Sacred Head forlorn <br />And those reproachful Eyes? <br /> <br /> <br />How dare confront the false quest with the true <br />Or think what gulfs between the ideals lie <br />Of Him Who died that men might live -- and you <br />Who live that men may die. <br /> <br /> <br />Ah, turn your eyes away: He reads your heart; <br />Pass on and, having done your work abhorred, <br />Join hands with Judas in his place apart, <br />You who betrayed your Lord.<br /><br />Sir Owen Seaman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-wayside-calvary/
