IMAGE OF EARTH AND QUILL

Guest Poet T. Emmett Mueller


FOR THE LOVE OF ...

Then all his disciples left him and fled. And a certain young man was
following him, having a linen cloth wrapped about his naked body, and they
seized him. But leaving the linen cloth behind, he fled away from them naked.

-- The Gospel According to Mark


Jesus Rodriguez
was murdered today
for loving his fellow-man.

He lived in a Texas border town
where thinking is
at best
an afterthought,
where words of fundamental robes are king.

He dared,
a bit too openly,
to party with his twelve, same-gendered friends.
In closeted upstairs room
they had their supper,
finished off with wine,
recited hymns of poetry.
They may have even danced.
The revelry spilled out into a garden
where naked love
was betrayed
by one kiss,
man on man.

When mobs straight and narrow
came for him--
with only mild resistance
from the gentle side--
they jeered and called him
queer and fag,
spilled his blood,
and dropped him at his father's door.

Now,
only this telling
may have the power
to resurrect
Jesus Rodriguez.

November 1997


T. Emmett Mueller's Questions:

Is the analogy with the Biblical account of the last supper apparent enough? Do I need to sprinkle in some Spanish phrases to accompany the name -Jesus Rodriguez?


Correspond with T. Emmett Mueller at
ORKIE44@aol.com
with your ideas about this poem.



The Albany Poetry Workshop