found his thirty pieces
of silver so tarnished
he could not wipe
them clean.

It was as if they
had been dipped
in a dish of salt-
sweat and vinegar
and curdled blood.

He worked with a cloth
and got nowhere.

He worked with his fingernails
and they burned.

He worked so hard scrubbing
that he finally collapsed
from sheer fatigue

and burst open.

Cover photo: Judas’ Regret by Jose Ferraz de Almeida Junior, 1880 (Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)