BOOK II. JESUS LIZARD

JESUS LIZARD

But I, too, am Christ,
And so are you— Christs,
All, who drink the same
Water we walk on.

SPLITTING WATERS

If I tread your waters, will I drown in it?
But you always did say you like me better
Sinking— this motion halfway before I drown.

Let me divide you, cross you, and walk through you.
And with this staff, let me commend your spirit.

LOST MEMO TO MY DISCIPLES

You must wonder why after having been stripped,
Whipped, and nailed like that I still don’t look quite dead
Like the rest of the pack. No, this is one thing
My being God has nothing to do about.
Come, check it out: This, you see, is all a sham.
If you really think it is me up there, that’s
Because you don’t know shit about hologram.

RANSOM CHRIST

They couldn’t stop laughing when I told them I was holding Jesus hostage.
“Jesus who?” Even then they already knew only they wanted to hear me say it again like it was a good joke meant to be tossed around because it was good and it made them laugh and you were not supposed to stop saying it until somebody said so and even then to say it again until they couldn’t quite laugh anymore if they wanted to because now they meant it when they begged for you to stop but you heard nothing and instead gave them more— God how you gave it to them— even when you knew they were already hurting and figured they meant it bad down on the floor begging on their knees and bleeding.

7:15:4

All day long you lie on your mat
beside the door that opens to
The livingroom where a picture
Of you hangs right above the wall
Alongside the bathroom and past
A corner that leads out into
The kitchen where just behind the
Stove I stand stirring up a storm

ENCOUNTERING DALI’S EMACIATED NUDE

Forgive me
If my bare
Nakedness

Frightened you.
It was just
That I, too,

Had to change
Sometimes, and
It did not

Quite help that
We shared the
Same small lair—

Privy as
You are and
Innocent

To the world,
And I, sin
And scandal

Most foul: You
Could have shut
Your eyes, turned

Away, wrapped
Your face with
A shawl, yet

Even as
I stood there,
Stripped to my

Final skin,
You chose to
Take it all

In, like a
Child before
A naked

Christ, to stare
Without at
All blinking

MONKEYSHINES

It happened
Again this
Evening— that
Odd sense of
rising deep
At the pit
Of my gut.
Or is it
Falling, how
Can I tell?
A change of
Gravity
Within the
Orbit of
My belly.
Whatever
It is, hell
Is within
My limit.
Like when the
House next door
Burned down, one
Morning, first
Time it hit.
Why would I
Even think
That I might
Have caused it?
Six carwrecks,
Four landslides,
Two fires, and
Twenty-six
Dead ago.
Anyone
Would have gone
Mad, and yet
Could it be
That there is,
Perhaps, a
Connection
Between the
Gastric and
The cosmic?
To tell you
The truth, I
Do not know.
The mind breaks
And lives by
Breaking. Now
Until then,
Please keep my
window shut.

MOONPUNCH