Jesus Paints Graffiti
I’m pretty sure Jesus is a morning person
that he wakes up in a good mood
He denies he ever spoke personally to George Bush
Maybe he spoke to Bob Dylan
Jesus wears a bathrobe and reads the obituaries
He has a long braid like Willie Nelson’s
He drinks his tea black
leaves the cap off the toothpaste
and never uses an ATM machine
He’s never won a poetry slam
or been published in the New Yorker
He runs full page ads in the New York Times
and blushes when he’s on the cover
of People Magazine: Sexiest Man Alive
Jesus painted graffiti on the Christiansburg Kmart in 1989
Next to a blue painted planet in bold black letters
he wrote: ON THE EIGHTH DAY WE PAVED IT
He left it unsigned
___________Colleen Redman ______dVerse Poets Pub
Post notes: You can read about how this poem, written in 2008, came about HERE. The photo is from an old Roanoke Times newspaper clipping that I scanned from my scrapbook, taken during the building of the Christiansburg Virginia KMart. The caption that accompanied it described the graffiti as “eco-vandalism.” Jesus Paints Graffiti was published in the Floyd County Moonshine magazine and online at Clutching at Straws.
October 22nd, 2013 3:33 pm
ha. blushes at being the sexiest man…lol…yes i like him looking like willie….this is a fun piece…def makiing jesus a bit down to earth….lol on not talking to george bush
October 22nd, 2013 4:24 pm
So, Jesus talks to you? Everything seems to happen in Floyd!!!
October 22nd, 2013 4:25 pm
You changed your ‘About” paragraph. You have transitioned?
October 22nd, 2013 4:37 pm
Love it – anything that helps us to keep a hold on the real humanity of Jesus is a good thing in my book.
October 22nd, 2013 4:54 pm
What “About” paragraph, Tabor?
October 22nd, 2013 5:10 pm
“He denies he ever spoke personally to George Bush
Maybe he spoke to Bob Dylan”
Had to laugh at that line. I really enjoyed this poem. Hints of humor, truth, wonder. Well done.
October 22nd, 2013 5:24 pm
I thought the “about” text was different…maybe that was something else? Maybe you changed it a long time ago and I did not notice?
October 22nd, 2013 5:28 pm
Oh, on the sidebar. It’s been the same since the beginning of blog time, 2005!
October 22nd, 2013 5:43 pm
Loved this piece, brilliant!
October 22nd, 2013 5:45 pm
Colleen, this is so clever. I love writing when a poet takes the divine and makes it human. To me this works so well considering that Jesus was, in his time, a bit of a rebel. I don’t agree that he leaves the cap off the toothpaste…though. His mama would have taught him better than that!
October 22nd, 2013 7:24 pm
Spot on! Jesus is, did, said and we still believe. He’s still the greatest man alive!
October 22nd, 2013 8:02 pm
This is so wonderful! If you can grab & hold a non-believer like myself and make them believe, wow!! Very well done! 🙂
October 22nd, 2013 8:25 pm
I love that Jesus maybe spoke to Bob Dylan…great poem 🙂
October 22nd, 2013 9:18 pm
this is such a delight, colleen! 🙂 i like every single line!
October 23rd, 2013 7:24 am
An interesting post, thanks for your visit to my photo blog.