The following poem first appeared in West Branch and is from his collection The Animal Too Big To Kill (2015, Persea Books).
On the First Day of the Last Week of His Life
Jesus Overturns the Tables of the Money-Changers
For John Gallaher
I wrote to a friend yesterday and told him my new poems were
About or I was trying to say
Something about money to God
I think and I don't understand it why I think it Lord You don't
Understand money
but of course You do / And maybe even
Lord if You were You You on Earth used money maybe You
Didn't just overturn the tables of the money-changers
Maybe You sometimes ached to not
Lord have enough for even a few figs / Maybe You hated figs
-----and always had or always the
Conditioned always of Your time here
hated figs / And maybe figs were usually
The cheapest food available and still You sometimes didn't
-----have enough
Maybe You suffered in Your body first the suffering of in Your
-----body Lord
Inhabiting Your poverty
Maybe Your body Lord was shaped by foods You hated
Maybe You sometimes walking to the market / Felt everybody
-----even only
for a moment / Glancing at You
knew Lord You lived on figs
Lord and You hated figs and always had
And on the day You overturned the tables of the money-changers
You also cursed a fig tree never to produce / Fruit again
because You had come to it hungry Lord
and found it barren
Posted with permission of the poet.
Entry written by D.S. Martin. His latest poetry collection is Ampersand (2018, Cascade). His books are available through Amazon, and Wipf & Stock, including the anthologies The Turning Aside, and Adam, Eve, & the Riders of the Apocalypse.
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