Ani Bachan
Judas Iscariot takes the early train to Gethsemane
The morning light is orange, and the sky electric blue.
It is winter but the trees play Adam and Eve, lush around their bare trunks.
Judas wonders if he was born bad
a wasp in God’s hair, a fraud in the hive.
You belong to me
Calls the fig tree; amethyst-barren, a kiss shy of shining
He belongs to you
Calls God. Judas is not amused.
The fruit of the womb is unfinished, unfinished. Sweeten it for my children.
I am your child! I left early- I did not eat!
But the sky was blue, and the morning orange. The trees were clothed in shame, grown unfaithful as hungry men.
Fill them up, fill them up. They will never want again.
The train rests before spring and Judas alights, dragging orange through clusters of buds: salvation is almost in season.
It’s dark. It’s very dark here. Kiss me so I know you’re there.
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Ani Bachan is a Toronto-based midwifery student and occasional writer. She has been previously published in Inlandia’s Online Journal, The Showbear Family Circus, F3LL Magazine, and Phantom Kangaroo.