[audio:https://theotherjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/anderson-trees-1.mp3|titles=anderson | trees]
Behind the Monastery of St. Gertrude’s
the Stations of the Cross climb a forested hill,
fourteen of them, plaster scenes
with wooden frames and shingled roofs
like small, flat houses
spread out along a path all the way to the top.
But they begin in an orchard, a cherry orchard,
and when I was there it was harvest time.
Jesus Condemned for Us,
the first scene read, in Gothic,
the Lord before Pilate, white as frosting,
the crowd on either side, standing in rows.
Above them all a cherry tree,
the hanging branches thick with fruit.
Bright red fistfuls of Bings.