I had the opportunity to write a spoken word piece for a church-sponsored event.  At the event, various poets presented pieces corresponding to the seven last words of Christ before He died on the cross.  More technically, we presented pieces on the seven last phrases Jesus spoke before He died.

My selection came from John 19:28 (NKJV)
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!”

Thirsty

I thirst
Physical thirst

Of course

You try
false arrest
imprisonment
kangaroo courts

Cat-o-nine tails
eviscerating your back
’til all that’s left
is pulp
that collects splinters

From the cross you carried

as you
raise up against it
just trying to breathe

You try
nails in your hands
nails in your feet

Thorns piercing your flesh
and
pressing into your skull
leaving track marks on
your cranium

While people
mock you and spit at your feet

Yes, He was thirsty

He was
parched
baked
cottonmouthed
cracked

Yearning
barren
wasted
arid

Longing
craving
burning
raving

Dry
dazed
depleted
dehydrated
desiccated

Desperate

He thirsted,
but
how can Living Water
be thirsty?

He thirsted
for dust
the dust into which
He blew

The breath of life

And made a
living soul

He thirsted for us
He thirsted for you
He thirsted for me
He thirsted for all humanity

I thirst, too
so do you

For the
physical
temporal
ephemeral
elusive
ultimately unattainable

For things
that do not
satisfy

We also thirst for
the
spiritual
eternal
uplifting
fulfilling
life-giving
should-cleansing
Savior

Who thirsts
for our dust

But we don’t
recognize
this thirst
can’t be quenched
by what is tangible

This thirst
requires
sacrifice
self-denial
self-abasement
selflessness

It requires
the salvation
of the cross

It requires
the One

Who in the middle
of dying

Thirsted for us
His very precious dust

It requires
the One
Who poured out
His Living Water
so we can
drink of Him
and thirst no more

But are we
thirsty enough
to take that drink?