What Rough Beast | Poem for September 30, 2018

Chad Parenteau
Polite Discourse Jesus

Polite Discourse Jesus
says it’s easier to needle
a camel’s eye than it is
to ask permission to be good.

Polite Discourse Jesus
asked the money lenders
to vacate the temples
as long as they felt like it.

Polite Discourse Jesus
couldn’t get a place
for the last supper, his table
taken by the Huckabees.

Polite Discourse Jesus
never found the right time
to have words with Judas,
who’s now running for senate.

Polite Discourse Jesus
is unable to ascend. He gets
kicked back in his grave
every three days.

Polite Discourse Jesus
had to die and come back
seven times just to share
three word with Pilate.

Polite Discourse Jesus
never bothers his Dad
while hanging out on the hill
every other weekend.

Polite Discourse Jesus
always has new friends
on either side, never
knowing who he is.

Chad Parenteau is the author of Patron Emeritus, released in 2013 by FootHills Publishing. His work has appeared in Tell-Tale Inklings, What Rough Beast, The Skinny Poetry Journal, Ibbetson Street, and Wilderness House Literary Review. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine. His second full-length collection, The Collapsed Bookshelf, is forthcoming.

SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.