Swamp Gospels

Swamp Gospels

James Moffitt

I.

Jesus Is Condemned To Death

I been like Icarus;

Choked on the son.

I found my salvation;

The Machine come undone.

II.

Jesus Receives The Cross

Red ants swarm legs of children,

Stinging during the sermon.

The welts grow.

Full of holy water,

Mothers pinch writhing lambs.

When cut,

They gush blood and bile.

Black and pulsing,

Wounds like altars.

Truth becomes a physical experience.

III.

Jesus Falls The First Time.

Four Sacred Sisters

Dated them Trinity of brothers,

But during their communion,

One went to look for others.

Her education she took,

from a poisoned rope in the wood,

he taught her to hate,

she resisted, until,

no one came searchin’.

IV.

Jesus Meets His Mother

I am all that was and all that shall be.

Alpha and Omega,

Like two boys,

comparing peckers in the attic,

only to look up and see…

V.

Simon Of Cyrene Carries The Cross.

A potkettle of boilin’ greens inside the boy’s stomach.

Inserted like wood into a stove.

Seared his innards.

After they rolled back his bellyskin like a tent flap,

His throat was wrapped in bailing wire,

and cut him when he cried.

The heat against his spine,

Served as a substitute.

VI.

Veronica Wipes Jesus’ Face With Her Veil.

The wet bush combusted,

after three day’s rain.

The town doused it out,

and went to pray again.

VII.

Jesus Falls The Second Time.

In ten days they married,

In twenty the conceived,

In thirty they aborted,

and in forty he took his leave.

VIII.

Jesus Meets The Daughters Of Jerusalem.

When the boys climbed to secure,

their newly conquered Eden,

One fell and broke his arm.

Their own construction betraying them,

They turned on one another.

After only two remained,

the view from the trees gave them such a fright,

they forgot all about the fight.

IX.

Jesus Falls The Third Time

The solid oak table in the kitchen,

was cut from the tree,

Our Father took wood from

to build the ‘T’ that hung our

laundry every Sunday.

When he was beat,

and called what we cain’t repeat,

They laid him there to suture.

His blood spilt like a river

from the split rock of his head.

A first born to his ma,

moaned with e’ry stitchprick

and sweated when they turned ‘im.

The table drank of his blood,

and tasted sweet when pies were laid to cool.

X.

Jesus Is Stripped Of His Garments.

White man came to the house,

But the pa had run.

They took his son.

When the ma came back,

She began to shout.

They brought the Bible out.

It was three years later,

When they found only bone.

On Sundays, they stay home.

XI.

Crucifixion: Jesus Is Nailed To The Cross

I been like Icarus;

Sworn off the sun.

My only destiny;

Is an earthly one.

XII.

Jesus Dies On The Cross.

My Ma named me.

I said why: she said she owned me.

My Pa taught me life,

I said why: he said he owed me.

Adam did the same,

But we gots a garden of dust.

Aint much to name.

Even less to trust.

XIII.

Jesus’ Body Is Removed From The Cross.

Apples pulled from any tree,

taste just the same to me.

They can be cooked up,

many different ways,

But the source of nourishment,

stays the same.

Remind me again,

which tree was covered in the pesticide.

XIV.

Jesus Is Laid In The Tomb And Covered In Incense.

I spent all day digging.

My hands are bloody.

My feet saturated in the depth’s offerings.

My ribs burn and my head is crawling

Confront me with faith, and find me stalling.