Crocker Museum, Sacramento, 2002
Pinned from behind,
beaten by young toughs—
blood streaks
the reverend’s cheeks
and rabat;
his body buckles, limp
as Christ on the cross.
A third grade class gathers around
the docent as she points
out his smashed spectacles
and fallen Bible. “See,” she says,
“how he stares so listlessly down
at the Camp Jerome dust.”
The reverend gives no
outward sign, waits for none.
He does not say, Suffer
the little children to come
unto me.
Susan Kelly-DeWitt | Redwings
Contents | Mudlark No. 46 (2012)