Poem: Healing

Healing

Gazing up from the gutter with grave eyes

Stoops a tangle of torn stockings and scarred skin

Startled, I stop and flop to my knees

And acknowledge her humanity with a touch.

“Please take me away from L.A.,” she says,

“Hollywood’s horrendous, unholy, Hell.”

I need not know the details of deeds done

To desire to save her sin-bitten soul.

Together we stagger past six or seven Starbucks

To land on rickety stools of an Outreach Mission

Where she slurps lamb broth without a spoon

While I share crusts of solace with the homeless.

She’s given a place to rest her leaden limbs

And as a tear graces her scratched cheek

She insists that she should show her thanks by

Washing my feet in cloudless water.

Graeme Roberts

Author's Note: 'Healing' forms part of an acclaimed poetry collection which re-imagines the life of Jesus into present day America.  I am currently in the process adapting the collection to create a piece of poetic prose.  This will become the next instalment in my series of short fictions, Living Legends.  The provisional date for the release of 'Living Legends: Jesus Christ' on Amazon Kindle is 11th December 2013.