Selected Poems
Janitor Jesus
Et ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus, usque ad consummationem sæculi. (Matt 28:20)
This was calm, seasoned Irish Jesus
with a push-broom bristle beard
smile and dust mop pony tail hair.
He wore Dickies blue canvas pants
and faded scuffed black work boots.
A knot of keys to the kingdom
clung to his side-belt loop.
Our slow-moving deliberate Savior
shuffled past and through our halls
knowing he was paid by the hour.
This last incarnation of the Lord
rowed a yellow wheel-bucket of brown
water and potato peelings to a slop sink dump.
A ferryman who'd known death a few days.
The second-coming would have to wait
until all the floors were clean and dry
and the very last light, was turned off.
This was calm, seasoned Irish Jesus
with a push-broom bristle beard
smile and dust mop pony tail hair.
He wore Dickies blue canvas pants
and faded scuffed black work boots.
A knot of keys to the kingdom
clung to his side-belt loop.
Our slow-moving deliberate Savior
shuffled past and through our halls
knowing he was paid by the hour.
This last incarnation of the Lord
rowed a yellow wheel-bucket of brown
water and potato peelings to a slop sink dump.
A ferryman who'd known death a few days.
The second-coming would have to wait
until all the floors were clean and dry
and the very last light, was turned off.