Philip Appleman
UNDER A CROWN OF THORNS,
SOME QUESTIONS ARISE ABOUT GENESIS 1:27
We're cast in the image of God, yes,
but up here the image blurs:
that Pharisee over there,
the one with the burro's belly
and a toad's complexion,
is
that the real thing, God
in the flesh?
Or maybe that saintly starveling, all
bones in his pinched piety -
is
God
proud
ofa profile like that?
Just days ago, these very faces ,
rainbowed with joy, saw palms
ripped and strewn for the Son ofMan - and now
my palms are crimson,
and it's
all
changed: bloodlust
smudges the thousand faces ofGod, and here
in the fog of this Friday
anticlimax, just
look at them, the veins
in that legionnaire's legs, the brutal
mouth, the pocked face, and -
and ofcourse the splendid curve
of that woman's hip, that too -
it
all
counts,
doesn't it?
I suppose they aren't even asking themselves,
those Godly faces out for fun,
expecting something big today, something
spectacular - so I should
be
telling them,
now, while there's still time:
you can't payoff an ugly squint
