Adulteress Poem by Josephine Collett

Here I am for your pleasure-
Enjoy my humiliation,
Savor my degradation,
Even though I asked for it,
Chose this slow agonising death
in the name of love,
by way of trust
And you watched with your lustful eyes,
Dragged me with your greedy hands,
Relish the sight of me-
Wretched, shamed, uncovered,
before I die.

There are sandals on the ground beside me,
A pair of dusty feet,
He kneels, graceful,
in this place of torment,
And with a pointing finger scribes
on the parched, barren sand beneath my gaze
A cross.

He stands before me, shielding me,
Risen, he remonstrates,
His voice of authority, challenging,
Warning, convicting,
and I drown in the peace of it,
and I look at
the cross,
His cross.

They are gone and
I am forgiven,
I am free,
Free to seek his face
as he tenderly looks at the person I was
and who I will be.
I see him
Who has taken my death from me,
Who has felt my pain,
and given me life again,
I see him, beautiful, my Saviour.