I sought to find a way to explore a comment made by a domestic violence survivor in response to another woman’s talking of finding connection through the image of the crucified Christa…

Running around to see the sights, exhausted from all the planning,
and finding it hard to remember
which museum had that amazing fan.
Three days is not enough;
it’s hardly time to try even the best restaurants.

Masked at the supermarket, looking straight ahead,
isolating myself behind a wall of fear constructed by a line on the graph.
No break in the circuit now.
Three days is not enough
when twenty-one is announced by Gladys in the morning.

You’ve got ‘til Friday mate, to find the money!
Long lines at Centrelink and knocking on a thousand doors but
how long does it take to turn a life around when you’ve lost your job?
Three days is not enough,
so now we bunk down in the car, the three kids on the back seat.

My Christa-Sophia will tell stories at Martha’s table (maybe dressed in Garibay red)
with hope flashing from her eyes and smile,
or call truth across the highway –
not draped on a cross loaded with symbols and baggage,
beaten and penetrated …
because three days is not enough:
the bruises would still be blossoming.

This healing takes much longer.