Peter’s Cowardice

After Adam Cullen’s painting of the same name for the 1999 Blake Prize.

Peter, of the stone,
in the crucible of dread
reduced to sulphur;
acid, ashes, stench.

Behind clenched teeth
you gag on it:
your eyes bulge
your tender membranes
bleed
with the shock of it,

betrayal
a blue pall descending;
the blue of nails
of manacles and spears.

You hunch your back,
you wring your hands against it.
Absolute as silence,
still it closes in.