Poem 20150418

Today’s prompt from #NaPoWriMo:

And now for our (as always, optional) prompt, which takes us from 2015 back to the 1700s. After all, it’s the eighteenth of April, which means that today is the 240th anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere! Today, in keeping with the theme of rush and warning, I challenge you to write a poem that involves an urgent journey and an important message. It could historical, mythical, entirely fictional, or memoir-ical.

—–

there’s that joke
about christ
on the cross
and peter
before he became a saint

and you have to remember
that he just denied that he even knew
jesus
three times

it’s important to remember that for
the sake of the joke

so jesus says
–and he’s hanging on the cross, remember–
jesus says, barely audible
and maybe peter is the only one who hears it
“peter,” he says

and that’s all

so peter grabs a ladder
throws it up against the timber
keeping jesus vertical
and climbs
only to have the roman guards
pull him down
and beat the shit out of him

this happens again
and the beating is worse
the second time

but jesus seems insistent
calls to him a third time
and peter
he longs for forgiveness
so he throws the ladder up
and scales it as fast as
his bruised legs
aching ribs
and trembling hands will allow

as the soldiers pull him down
jesus smiles and says
“i can totally see your house from here.”