Stations of the Cross: A Prosaic Response to John Ashbery’s Poem “The Ecclesiast”
The man left oilslick footprints, bright, then dark, mottled sometimes, variegated and unexpected. He was homeless certainly, under his burden of layered clothing and multiple grocery bags, followed by the rank decay of life. And yet, every step forward made a new color on the pavement. He gave the impression of someone from an earlier time, a medieval peddler or Christ under the cross, no Simon to bear his burden.
He walked with a staggering gait, as if the unevenly distributed grocery bags pulled him constantly off balance.… Read the rest