Giotto's Kiss of Judas

By Jessica Walters

---

Art: Giotto, Public domain

---

Torches, clubs, and spears
gripped by disciples and soldiers
slant towards the centre
of the painting, where Judas in jaundiced
yellow, silken, garment
places a hand on Christ’s 
shoulder. The cloak
enfolds the two, their eyes meet. 
Christ is unsurprised as Judas 
puckers up. The betrayer’s 
face reveals uncertainty—as if 
the moment he hoped to savour
fluttered out of reach.

It’s too late to backtrack now.
Pursed lips inch toward the mouth
of Christ. But the kiss, he knows, 
will kill them both.

---

Jessica Walters' work has been published in The Ormsby Review, [spaces] literary journal, Still, Agape Review, Scintilla and Solum, and her short story 'Glass Jars' was shortlisted for the Mitchell Prize for Faith and Writing. Holding an MFA in Creative Writing, she teaches creative and academic writing in Langley, British Columbia. 

Jessica's other work on Foreshadow:
The Sunday Blues (Poetry, February 2023)
Reintegration and Rediscovery: Jessica Walters and Pilgrimage (Forecast Ep 43)

Related work on Foreshadow:
At Judas' funeral (Poetry by Carl Winderl, March 2021)
swinging from an olive tree (Poetry by Emma McCoy, April 2022)