A Rusty Nail

I ran a nail into my hand,

      The wound was hard to heal;

So bitter was the pain to stand

      I thought how it would feel,

To have spikes thrust through hands and feet,

      Impaled by hammer beat.

Then hoisted on a cross of oak

      Against the sullen sky,

With all about the jeering follk

      Who joyed to see me die;

Die hardly in insensate heat,

      With bleeding hands and feet.

Yet was it not that day of Fate,

      Of cruelty insane,

Climaxing centuries of hate

      That woke our souls to pain!

And are we not the living seed

      Of those who did the deed!

Of course, with thankful heart I know

      We are not fiends as then;

And in a thousand years or so

      We may be gentle men.

But it has cost a poisoned hand,

      And pain beyond a cry,

To make me strangely understand

      A Cross against the sky.