Anointing

Craig Kirchner

He walks where Christ walked,

humiliated, barefoot and baptized,

crazed naked in sacrilege.

Dogs gather quickly, lead the way,

scent the adrenaline of purpling flesh,

bite ankles of graying skin.

A veiled widow wipes spit and mud

from his face, her mourning and grief,

levitate and pass, as he passes.

Tattooed harlots bring granite nails,

tongue his wounds, rub loins with balsam oil,

pelt his ribs with jewelry of thorns.

Groveling on grotesque knees,

he bleeds earth on their breasts,

as lighting strikes in the distance.

Heaven pauses, reflects on the moment,

seems awed enough to pull his file,

and take appropriate notes.

Craig Kirchner is retired and thinks of poetry as hobo art. He loves storytelling and the aesthetics of the paper and pen. He has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels. He houses 500 books in his office and about 400 poems in a folder on a laptop. These words tend to keep him straight. After a writing hiatus he was recently published in Poetry Quarterly, Decadent Review, New World Writing, WordSwell, , 7^th Circle Pyrite, Ariel Chart, Blotter, Bombfire, Borderless Crossings, Cape Magazine, Carolina Muse, , Coneflower Café, Edge of Humanity, Fairfield Scribe, Fixator, Flora Fiction, Floyd County, Gas, Ginosko, Globe Review, Hamilton Stone Review, Impspired, Ink in Thirds, Journal of Expressive Writing, Kleksograph, Last Leaves, Last Stanza, Light Ekphrastic, Lit Shark, Literary Heist, Literary Yard, Loud Coffee, Medusa’s Kitchen, Moria, Neologism, Poetry Super Highway, Punk Monk, Quail Bell, Same Faces, Scab, Skinny, Spillwords, Scars. Sybil, The Argyle, The Lake, Timada’s Diary, Unbroken, Unlikely Stories, Valiant Scribe, Variety Pack, Versification, Wild Violet, Wise Owl, The Good Men, Witcraft, Lothlorien, Yellow Mama, Young Ravens, Arlington Literary, Glacial Hills Review, Your Impossible Voice and work forthcoming at Poetry Breakfast, Muse India, Writers Resist, Rushing thru the Dark, Sparks of Calliope, Stereo Stories, Floyd County, Dark Winter, Gargoyle Magazine, Vine Leaf Press, Abstract, Chiron Review, Coffee and Conversation, and The Main Street Rag.