Poem - The Good Swineherd

The Good Swineherd

O. Kris Widmer

Idea:  August 15, 2016  6:25         Posted: August 15, 2016 6:45

Based on passages in Matthew 8, Mark 5 and Luke 8

Three Word Wednesday #492:  Required Words:  Painstaking, Queasy, Radiant

It was very odd.

Nothing like this had happened

in all the Gentile generations

around Lake Gennesaret

that raised the multi-colored,

snouty beasts

for the bacon of their backs,

the hams of their haunches.

He had seen it all happen from afar.

The Nazarite and his entourage

Spoke briefly to the crazy man.

The town had tried, really they had –

 confining him more than once in the tombs.

Then…without warning

every last one of the sows had charged down the slop filled slope,

Then, over the edge into the lake.

“When pig’s fly” is a saying, true.

But “When pigs swim.” is just as much an impossibility apparently.

All that remained

was the painstaking chore

of sailing in circles,

collecting corpses.

Perhaps, if the town butchered them quickly,

some of their flesh was salvageable.

(For whatever reason, it wasn’t.  It looked fine, but tasted wretched.)

He was left with his questions about not being kosher himself

and the queasy anticipation of relating these events

to those that care about hog belly futures in town.

The only thing that made him swallow his bile

was the newly calmed crazy man

clothed, radiant, humming a happy tune.