in cinematic snippets, ten-second scenes of twelve Sons
of man and, small eyes wide, he wants to know
which face, which frame, which meekest little finger
captures the divine like aurora borealis
in a mason jar? The one kneeling in gravel, black kinks coarse
as uncombed wool, hands flailing a whirlwind
of precepts like he's conjuring religion from air?
New shot, new film: meet the close-up Jesus
whose adage and all its archaeology blink gone
the second you spot them: blue eyes
like small see-through planets, crystalline as the topaz
in glass-encased crowns. Or how about
a clown, equipped with clown's fro, sporting
Superman tee and suspenders? This Jesus jiggies
to the top of a New York high-rise, then weeps
at the right hand of twin towers. Charmed,
bored, bemused—I still don't see
what I need, and what
do I need? A person of color? An androgynous mother?
Even another—rectangular jaws made larger by
cropped hair and a rough goatee—is, at first,
just another modern man
playing God, or trying to, and don't I see that
infant need whenever the rearview reflects
my gritted teeth, my squint-eyes raging at a road that won't go
fast enough for the dashboard's digital clock
that's also mine and always ticks for me?
But then a dozen villagers in burlap robes
ask the bowl-cut Jesus why, and what, and who,
and this one, this one gulps
at doubt, then airs it out
by words of wide Bronx vowels
like his is a draft he's surprised by, like
who knew he'd find metaphors of stone?
Like his father is weird as the eyes
of a spider, like he's learning religion as he goes.
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This poem originally appeared in Shenandoah. Jim is a real person, a Jesus-film expert, and the poem was inspired after he showed me a montage of clips that he uses to help people investigate their expectations of Jesus.
This story has no tags.
"...learning religion as he goes."
How it's done.
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I read this earlier today, and it has been with me for hours and hours "This Jesus jiggies / to the of a New York high-rise, then weeps" especially. * And then this in the SF Chron today
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2011/04/22/DD5U1J4OQI.DTL&object=