
Poems
Jesus Goes Underground
Date added: 29/05/2020
JESUS GOES UNDERGROUND
She listens to her Walkman
living in another world,
ignoring her neighbour as herself.
He reads The Sun
immersed in actors’ lives,
washing his mind with soap.
They do not touch,
insulated, isolated,
marriage withdrawal symptoms.
She scrunches monster munches,
monosodium glutamate;
bags of tasty emptiness.
He’s stuck in sniffing glue,
addicted to cheap death;
nobody knows the trouble he’s in.
To bring them to their senses and together,
Jesus goes Underground.
He grabs the tube of glue
and breathes the breath of God.
He throws the packet away
and gives her bread.
He joins their hands in his
and brings them warmth.
He folds The Sun in half
and beams a smile.
He slips the headphones from her ears
and shares his news.
© Graham Kings, Nourishing Connections (Canterbury Press, 2020).
First published in Mission Theology Advisory Group, Anne Richards (ed.), Transparencies: Pictures of mission through prayer and reflection (Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and Church House Publishing, 2002).