THE
RATIONALIZATIONS
OF DAVID THE DAD
Jesus is fading from the sceneMumbling like some drunk
Chapter 17
God, it frightens me to sit here talking about Jesus,
2Knowing how it must sound,
3hAnd knowing I’m all full of pills,
4And probably look exactly like all the other gray, shriveled vegetables they’ve got planted on couches and chairs in this linoleum waiting room where they send you to die,
5Because I don’t want it to be over,
6And I don’t want to go out mumbling like some drunk who never saw the bus that hit him,
7But I find myself saying his name,
8Wondering what he would say if he were here and could see us all withering to dust inside our clothes.
9aHe was thirty-three,
10But when I see him, I know I’m seeing Lincoln instead,
11Dressed in a robe and sandals,
12bBut still with that beard,
13cAnd those eyes.
14What would he say?
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Chapter 17 / 29