ROBERT PRIEST

Christ Is the Kind of Guy

Christ is the kind of guy

you just can't help hurting

No matter how much you love him

when you walk you stumble into him

you push him accidentally from a window

If you back the car out

you will find him squashed behind the wheels

broken on the door -- all over the grate

Christ has the kind of skin

that bruises when you hold him

the kind of face that

kisses cut

He is always breaking open

when we go to embrace him

Christ the haemophiliac

even the gentlest people can't help

wounding Jesus Christ

They are always running for a band-aid

and then pulling open his old wounds

on a nail

If there is a cross in your house

you will find yourself bumping up against him

accidentally

moving him closer and closer to it

his arms continually more and more

widespread as he talks

Christ is the kind of guy

who can't help falling asleep like that

his arms spread wide as though over the whole world

You have a dream with a hammer

You are making a house

In the morning you awake

and find him up there on the crossbeams

one hand nailed to the door frame

"Look Jesus" you say

"I don't want to be saved like this!"

But then you hurt him

extra

taking him down

you pry at the nails savagely

but it's no use

Christ is the kind of saviour

you can only get off a cross

with a blow torch

"Father forgive them" he says

as you begin to burn his hands

                                    ---Robert Priest

His words have been decried in the legislature, posted in the transit system, turned into a hit song, quoted in the Farmer's Almanac, and sung on Sesame Street. Rosa Rose, (Wolsak & Wynn) is a book of honour in the Lion and Unicorn Award for Excellence in children’s poetry in North America. see poempainter.com