What Rough Beast | Poem for August 31, 2019

Chad Parenteau
Straight Pride Jesus Tanka

Flanked by twelve proud boys
and marshaling Judases
Straight Pride Jesus will
baptize himself on the cross
no one asked him to carry.

Chad Parenteau is the author of Patron Emeritus (FootHills Publishing, 2013). His work has appeared in Tell-Tale InklingsQueen Mob’s Tea HouseThe Skinny Poetry JournalIbbetson Street, and Wilderness House Literary Review. He serves as associate editor of Oddball Magazine. His second full-length collection, The Collapsed Bookshelf, is forthcoming.

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