This piece was actually written in June of 2000 as a summer school assignment; I was required to write a concrete poem as part of the poetry segment of a creative writing course. The idea of writing a poem about the death of Christ in the shape of the symbol closely associated with it seemed so highly logical at the time. I doubt it has not been done before. I cannot explain why I chose those specific words (a phenomenon with which I'm sure most writers can identify), but once I saw the poem on paper, it all made sense.