What Rough Beast | Poem for July 20, 2019

J.P. White
All We Have Left

Whatever else you might think about Christ,
He knew our gender can change over time.
How men can bring a gift after each fresh humbling.
How women can glow when facing stone.
He didn’t care how the body carried itself over the little bridge
Of our short while together.
He kept John close for who he was:
A gender free, non-binary who would know
How to care for Mary after that ugly business at the cross.
Every day someone gets punched in the face, kicked or knifed
Because of who they look like or lie down with at night.
But let’s not forget we already know how this should work.
The one we keep by our side at our last meal
Is the one who might be more woman than man
Or the other way around.
He might be a she or he might be a they who will gather with us
When our skin is no longer needed
And the sky is all we have left to gaze upon when day becomes night.

J.P. White is the author of the poetry collections The Sleeper at the Party (Defined Providence Press, 2001), The Salt Hour (The University of Illinois Press, 2001), The Pomegranate Tree Speaks from the Dictator’s Garden (Holy Cow Press, 1988), and In Pursuit of Wings (Panache Books, 1978). His essays, articles, fiction, reviews, interviews and poetry have appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Gettysburg Review, American Poetry Review, Sewanee Review, Shenandoah, Prairie Schooner, and many other journals and anthologies. He holds a BA from New College (1973), an MA from Colorado State University (1977), and an MFA from Vermont College (1990). He lives on Lake Minnetonka near Minneapolis.

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