The Suffering of St. Sebastian (Poetry)

Not a dry eye in the house
they watched him dragged away
stripped of his captain’s armour
and handled brutally
on the orders of Diocletian
they tied him to a tree

A young man in his prime
with the beauty of his flesh
exposed for all to see
how the maidens must have wept
for the waste and simple pity’s sake
while the archers lined up and took aim

How many of those arrows found
their inoffensive mark
pierced him out of anger at
his steadfastness to the new Christian faith
is unrecorded as each bubo bled
proving saintly in the dark

The witness said he didn’t flinch
but undertook his punishment
with neither plea nor argument —
For what crime did he commit?
One might suppose the god he chose at least
declared him innocent. Intervened, maybe ...

So Sebastian survived
this ferocious sagittation and
the widow Irene of Rome discovering
his fine strong body still alive
took it home. Nursed him with as little impropriety
as she could muster to a full, albeit brief, recovery

But martyrs by the very definition have to die.
Hence a second round with the emperor —
no holds barred this time
he was clubbed to certain death
His killers (plagued by fear perhaps) quick
to put an end to such arousing, oddly quixotic
                                                                suffering