Jesus asked,

When one looks 
at Japanese 
scroll paintings 

of waterfalls— 
taki, black ink
on white silk, 

those unfurlings
of negative space 
suggesting mist 

and falling water,
supposedly
so cooling 

in summer— 
how conceivably
to avoid thinking 

the word 
“pubic”?
Those jutting rocks, those 

overhanging tufts
of grasses, 
humid and peaty? A poet 

wrote Pictures 
are hard 
to see... And people 

are hard to love, but it’s 
harder still 
to unsee how 

sex is every solitary thing’s
verge—cresting sweet mess of wet
before falling— 

Patrick Donnelly | Jesus said You will not
Contents | Mudlark No. 61 (2016)