I Saw Jesus by Christopher A. Lane
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I saw Jesus - the Christ - scampering through
the shit-laden garbage down at the village
dump, playing and laughing and searching with
young eyes for gold:  a scrap of food, a piece of junk
that someone might pay a few pennies for
hungry as hell and rubbing his stomach, his bloated
malnourished stomach like a pregnant woman
on the legs of a crane, gathering cardboard for his
bed, trash sacks for blankets, his teeth brown
crusts in a mouth of chapped, bleeding lips

he was throwing old diapers at his brother, his sister
laughing and not minding the stench or the disease
that was clamoring up his arms
sweating in the afternoon sun and thinking of water
and drinking from a tiny mud hole where the men

like to piss.  I saw Jesus - the Christ - wearing pants
he found swimming in the sewer runoff
I saw him resting in the shade of a burned out
shanty, kneeling in the mud to draw pictures
with a bone.  And he said to tell you
hello
 
Contact Christopher A. Lane at: ShamblinGait@aol.com