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Cristina del Canto Poetry Collection

I have rebuilt myself, like a burned down cathedral
keeping my stained glass windows
as a memory of who I once was

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Cristina del Canto Poetry Collection

  • Poetry
    • Remember Me?
    • Yellow
    • Caracas
    • Man of Jell-O
    • All these things traveling through me still don't bring me to you
    • Way of Sorrows
    • Banned
    • Forever Cathedral
    • 3,2,1,0
    • Morning Routine
    • Hugo Chávez Still Lives
    • Venezuela
    • I Could Have Really Forgotten You If We Had Never Met
    • Green Trails Days
    • Rafflesia Arnoldii
    • Lou's Blues
    • Snowmen in Windsor Park
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  • Publications/Interviews Archive
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Way of Sorrows

At 21, the Jordan River baptized me,
at last – my mother was exuberant:
her first-born saved from being
young, drunk and beautiful. On the
third day, we swam in the Dead Sea.
I tried to float, but, my doubts weighed
me down and I did not rise. A week later,
I watched my mother kneel in the
Garden of Gethsemane, eyes closed,
head bent in fervent prayer. Afterwards,
we walked Via Dolorosa, her feet blistered
and so we exchanged sandals. I slipped hers
on and swallowed the ominous lump in my
throat. Even then, months before the brain
tumors, and hospital visits, I somehow knew
it was the last time I would walk in her shoes.
And so I walked the Way of Sorrows, missing
her impending absence even as she stood beside
me, as my hair turned white with grief for what
I knew was soon to come. 

Way of Sorrows

At 21, the Jordan River baptized me,
at last – my mother was exuberant:
her first-born saved from being
young, drunk and beautiful. On the
third day, we swam in the Dead Sea.
I tried to float, but, my doubts weighed
me down and I did not rise. A week later,
I watched my mother kneel in the
Garden of Gethsemane, eyes closed,
head bent in fervent prayer. Afterwards,
we walked Via Dolorosa, her feet blistered
and so we exchanged sandals. I slipped hers
on and swallowed the ominous lump in my
throat. Even then, months before the brain
tumors, and hospital visits, I somehow knew
it was the last time I would walk in her shoes.
And so I walked the Way of Sorrows, missing
her impending absence even as she stood beside
me, as my hair turned white with grief for what
I knew was soon to come. 

Via_dolorosa_Jerusalem.jpg
Forever Cathedral
shutterstock_96137384 (1).jpg
about 10 years ago

copyright © Cristina del Canto