Second Helping

(Actually done in 2004, but no ideas for a poem this year and it's not on the blog, so.....)


He said, “I can walk on water.”
They said, “We can fly, in air planes.”
He said, “Simon Magus was brought down by Peter.”
“Excuse me, sir? You’re under arrest.
We don’t harbour terrorists,”
they said, for His threats
and to his promises.

The first time He said He was God
the lawsuits began coming.
He said lawyers were the work of the devil.
His public defender didn’t defend him,
angry at the stories about lawyers.
“If you are the Son of God, you would be with us!”
“I walked with prostitutes, the poor, the outcasts.
I would not walk with you. You are the evils
of this age,” He said, and did not smile.

His followers said He was changed.
Forty days and forty nights in the asylum
changes anyone. He said, “I can call down the fires of God.”
They introduced Him to electroshock therapy.

The Supreme Court declared raising the dead illegal,
the FDA said resurrection was a new drug
giving the high of temporary extinction.
The first dead man returned sued him
for emotional damages and the loss of his home.
The scientists called it a mass hallucination
James Randi debunked Him on Oprah.

The believers found Him alone
in a garden outside the city.
“Tell us of God,” they implored,
asking him to autograph their bibles.
He said the bible was the work of man
inspired by God, and refused to endorse
one version over another, or Nike Shoes
for that matter.

“God didn’t fact check it. You added things
to the inspiration of my Father,
turned poetry into prose.”
And they said, “You do not believe?
Are you not a Christian?”
He smiled sadly. “Words are stones too,”
He said gently, but they had been raised
on MTV, and had no time for parables.

They strung Him up in the cornfield
to ward off crows, reckoning
that if He was the Son of God
He could do that much at least.
“You are not Jesus,” they said,
punctuating each word with a stake.

Later, drunk on spirits and Easter candy
they returned, and took Him down.
Crucifixion is too easy,” they said,
eyes bloodshot and words slurred.
“We’ve learned much since then.”

The body was discovered
by small animals in a garbage bag
at the city dump. They ate Him
without knowing who He was
and would not have cared if they had -
He had not come back for them.
He tasted a little like bread
And not like chicken at all.