Diamond Sutra
An impossibly blonde Jesus steps
up to the Mudville plate
swinging his turnkey providence
knocking Calvary from his cleats
Rowdy boosters spill cola, rend their clothes,
shout in mysterious licorice tongues for this
unspeakable congress with the
sacred slugger
The pitcher wears an emerald snake
around her arm
she shakes off a sign or two
ignoring first the locusts, then
the burning bush
opting for the inside curve
Jesus mutters something pithy
to the squatter, blessing and
assuring him that his services
won’t be needed, as
this one’s going outta the park
But, caught in Magdalene’s wind-up
her shiver, her twist, her magical shibboleth
scored by tiny brass ankle bells singing
a new qabalah into his brain
he swings
…high and inside
about this piece
Not sure if it’s become clear yet, but I have a deeply adversarial, and okay, maybe slightly obsessive relationship with religion. For as much as I think the bible is utter bullshit as a religious text, it does have some truly beautiful literary aspects. It also drops a useful pin in our really slow cultural evolution.
Even the bible asks us to consider Jesus as a human being. He had some of the usual flaws that come with being borne of woman, right? Magdalene figures heavily in the text, and even moreso among later scholars and the pullers-apart of foolishness. We’re VERY conflicted about her: she’s villified, reviled, set apart, but also admired for her eventual transformation into a believer, at least, if not the 13th apostle. While none of the authors would state it outright, I’m pretty sure the two were an item.
She’s a pivotal character for me. Which is one of the reasons why I was so fascinated by Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ.’ It explored what would’ve happened if Jesus had accepted the last-minute offer to be spared. He would wake up in the morning, married to Magdalene, have some kids, do some farming, raise some goats, and have a perfectly normal, simple, happy little life.
Scorsese jumped over it, but I wondered about their courtship. How a man who may have been something more than a man would start to settle into her. Just a guy taking a swing at something he never expected to have. How would she, in all her vast experience, help him to adjust to this new reality?