Nobody Noticed Jesus came back on TikTok since two hundred forty characters couldn’t raise the dead. He was hoping three minutes would be enough to regroup all the MIA Christians who’d stopped believing in anything—especially themselves. If only their ears had been eyes the first time—they could’ve seen what I really meant. Even though they’re glued- together stardust, humans just weren’t built that way. They made him the first bloody telegraph pole— sending a message that endured two millennia— until the digital age. Then hucksters with toothy smiles and slicked back hair played fast and loose with all his humble truths to keep the cash cow mooing— they preached heaven could be here on earth— as long as the price was right. His video was a simple one no gangsta rap or dancers writhing to primal beats just a sad-eyed bearded soul preaching worldwide brotherly love— he didn’t stand a chance. This time there were no angry mobs— neither crowds nor riots appeared— not even a single thumbs-up. · · · Ambivalence The future is never present while looking at the past only ghosts of lost chances that restlessly haunt the temporary now as they dispatch the immediate to misty realms of unnoticed and forsaken opportunities where the light of day is forever cloaked by shadows of promises waiting to be born
—Submitted on 09/04/2022
N.T. Chambers‘s poems have appeared in Grassroots Literary Magazine, In Parentheses, You Might Need to Hear This, Nine Cloud Journal, The Elevation Review, Wingless Dreamer, Months to Years, New Note Poetry, Bright Flash Literary Review, and Quibble Magazine.
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Editor’s Note: The series title A River Sings is borrowed from “On the Pulse of Morning,” the poem read by Maya Angelou at the inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993.