
Meet Michael Mark, a spoken word artist who is following hard and fast after Jesus Christ. Right in time for Holy Week and along the lines of Heaven, How I Got Here, Michael has written a poem based on the story of the thief on the cross from Luke’s Gospel in chapter 23.
Enjoy this entirely new perspective on the thief’s story in the form of spoken word:
Just Hangin’
I tell you the truth
I’m scared
Full of fear
The end is near
I’m just hanging here
As I suppose I should
My dank new dwelling two pieces of wood
I’m loaded with stress
And I could
I guess
Wrestle and strain
In the hope to relieve my pain
But I got to use my brain
It’s insane
To yell or beg or shout
There’s no way out
Without a doubt
My fabricated home is temporary
Any personal attachment unnecessary
Relocation is imaginary
Ain’t a damned thing merry
‘Bout waiting to be buried
But I’m just bein’ straight
That’s my fate
I can be irate at the state
And debate
Try to negate their dictate
But I ain’t gonna skate
This bucket I’m bound to kick
With a final groan
And then be picked
Apart
Like a chicken bone
All alone
But, wait, hold the phone
A slight turn to the right
And I see I’m not alone
Whoa, who’s that
Look at this cat
Been beaten to a pulp
I gulp
Back my horror
My man’s lookin’ so frail
At least I’m hung with ropes
This dude’s impaled with nails
And then I got the point
You know I just robbed a joint
But what’s really kinda odd
Is that he’s claimin’ to be God
Strollin’ through the streets with a 12 man squad
Although it seems to me they turned out to be soft
Cuz this guy’s hangin aloft
And they all took off
Seems that most of his family they done the same
I don’t know the brothers name
But despite his world of pain
He seems calmly steadfast in this unlikely claim
And, you know, what he be sellin’, I don’t plan to buy
And yet there’s something unignorable about this guy
I can’t identify why
But looking at his face it makes me want to cry
They scream epithets his way and he just don’t reply
He doesn’t mount a defense and he doesn’t defy
There’s a power emanating
But what does that imply
It’s as if contained within him is an endless supply
Of something indeed
Maybe something I need
And as I watch him bleed
And I attempt to gauge
I clue in on a truth that straight up fills me with rage
This message he’s purporting
If it’s true and clear
Then my neighbor has the chops to get me down from here
And I scream, “If you da man and see this scene so tragic…
Then throw down with these heathens, brother, work your magic.”
Yet limply he dangles silent as a clam
Head hung in supplication like a helpless lamb
And just as some choice words I thought I oughta be sayin’
I thought I’d come correct and let him know I’m not playin’
And then he started mumbling
Like his senses were strayin’
And in a moment it occurred to me
This man, he was prayin’
And not on his behalf for all his pain and his losses
He was prayin’ for the guys who hung us up on these crosses
My mind could not make sense of how this stranger lives
Who looks upon his murderers and then forgives
And my instincts told me that this was not coercive
But never had I seen something so subversive
A supernatural cadence streaming down from above
And it did something to my heart cuz it was filled with love
“My suffering is just,” I yelled, “my rap sheet is long…
“But this man is a prophet who’s done nothing wrong”
And as I shouted to the throng
All the agony and cries somehow became a song
I could hear it, it was beautiful
It told of a place
An eternal destination
I could see in his face
And as this picture of a kingdom filled up the whole of my view
I knew
It came through all he was showing
It was an absolute assurance but a new kind of knowing
And I begged him, “please remember me when you get where you’re going
To taste his easy yoke and find relief from my strife
To implant his lightened burden into my life
I would’ve given anything,
Paid any price
But instead he looked into my eyes,
This one called the Christ
And said, “I tell you the truth,”
With a voice so gentle and nice
“Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Such a simple proclamation
Yet it’s emanation
A steadfast designation
That this declaration
Shifted my destination
From damnation
To salvation
And I was filled to overflowing
With a sense of elation
And so I hang here liberated from the whole of my sinning
All my losing has transformed into winning
My heart is changed
I feel light and I’m grinning
Gloriously anticipating a brand new beginning
As I conclude my time on earth
A rebirth
Care of my teacher
A new creature
Michael Mark is a pastor and a life coach who is all in for the gospel. His spoken-word poetry has been seen on church stages throughout the state, and he is also an educator in the field of addiction teaching the recovery model in hospitals, universities and other institutions.