Triptych

[ChristopherSea]

Thanks for the feedback Christopher.

About the 3rd section.

Dog dong - is partly a device to break the iambic, but is also a way of not using fuck - to represent the course nature of the fishermen - which would be wrong culturally and historically.

Looking at stuff about crucifixion, I was struck by the number of depictions not of a cross but a post, onto which the person was hung by a single nail through the hands (creating what I poetically term - the flame shape of the candle with the arms) and then impaled - impaling was apparently done to speed death, and to lessen the pain due to blood loss. And the 'inauspicious tree' was the name given to post/frame.... and the nail was apparently ground down and used in medicine - hence why the doctor and the tax collector want it - the doctor to use, the tax collector to sell. And the crow is there because it was common practice to leave the body exposed as a warning.... crucifixion being a punishment reserved for the lower, and particularly slave classes, as a way of keeping them in line - but also because of it's mythological iconic status.

The grand arching metaphor - is slightly more problematic to answer because there are a number of threads being spun...

a) this has nothing to do with the bible and this is a representation of a day. Between roughly 300BC and @100AD... possibly later, though the definition of the clothing limits this somewhat.
b) it is an allegory of Johanite heresies/traditions
c) if you take the baptism as being a Greek/Roman/Egyptian/Persian mystery cult, the allegory becomes about the early church/the Jesus Cult
d) there are elements of Simon Magus, and various apostolic/apostate traditions reacting with these three main strands

When writing the poem I have tried to play out these layers/strands, and deliberately not made choices, as to which strand dominates.

Which is perhaps not the answer you were looking for.

Yes, thanks for all the explanation and answers. I was working on that candle metaphor, but did not see the over the head arms as a flame. Even though I referenced the columnar crucifixion. I was thinking more of her pale limbs as the color of a candle. I did not say it was a bible story, but you lead us down that path or our own minds drew us that way. By the way, the year 33 AD falls within that time span. There were several other Easter eggs along the bunny trail of that fisherman's tale. The fork in the somewhat parallel story was when the carpenter didn't take the plunge. Then, he was not the orator in the square. A day or a year doesn't change the similarities nor hide a crown of thorns on the far side of a river bank. Nice work and thanks for sharing it.