Headlines

By Jack D. Harvey

Gadabout God faces famous courtesan,

tits and all,

calls Moses a fraud, calls Jesus false

as the bloody cross he hung from;

tricks of the trade, snakes in the grass,

he calls them, all of them;

read all about it, it’s all here,

plain as day or the sparkling night.

Queens leave adultery to

their daughters instead of cold millions;

read all about it, read about

flames, arson, dying firemen,

flying bullets and

dead famous entertainers,

death coming to Disneyland

in a hoop-skirt;

lapidary hoopla, it’s all there,

bold as brass, stupid as paint,

creating coffins of words,

black and fleeting,

holding us briefly

and no more.

We ain’t talking about the good word,

boys and girls,

the gospels to come, to be told,

to be treasured;

just the daily bleating, the comings and goings,

the ratcheting of infamous feats,

retarded admirals and presidents

at home and abroad,

in big trouble, uh-oh,

stays of execution,

all kinds of sinners and whores

in the fields of earth and

at the end of the road, the end of now,

as we know it, a modest apocalypse.

Wow! And forget it.

God, sly as a fox and bold as a lion,

scales down his limitless circumference,

signaling from the sky,

comes down again, this time

harrowing not only hell,

but earth’s own sweet self,

not only boxing

the daily evangelists into oblivion,

but bringing to us all

His grace and terrible truth;

ripping out now with

the message of eternity;

none of it lasts, folks,

not a goddamned bit of it.   

 Editor’s note: This poem was previously published in Chambers and Zombie Logic Review

Jack D. Harvey’s poetry has appeared in The Comstock Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Northwest Indiana Literary Journal, Typishly Literary Magazine, The Antioch Review, The Piedmont Poetry Journal and elsewhere. The author has been a Pushcart nominee and over the years has been published in a few anthologies.