Poem: Learning

Learning

Uncle Joe taught me how to resurrect the fallen

Olive logs and forge of them loveless furniture

As I trusted no mask to protect from specks

Sawdust would collect thick on my chest

I used to flick flecks across the workshop

With hardened fingers which checked for knots

Customers came to watch us break our backs

Something in the method, the authenticity

Compelled to smell the abrasive blades’ sweat

And taste the sweet fruits of tiresome grafting

Joe told me not to contest the strange interest

Taken by mere mortals in making things

Sure, the awe-filled stares grated as I’d grind

Another drawer, grooving with an awl till smooth

But I bit my lip, let bitter notions settle

And conquered my seething by reading stories

Once rooted deeply in the unruined ground

Now bound but swimming with wit and wisdom

I’d take my new-found love to the temple steps

And admire the scholars’ tongues sharing songs

Joe warned against involvement with such men

Convinced they had no useful words to spread

Instead he said that we should cut some oak

And shape it into shelves kept for ourselves

He bought me books which offered other thoughts

The stronger ones I engraved onto my throat

To be given air once I had fully carved

My final coffin and watched it sink

Graeme Roberts

Author's Notes: 'Learning' 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.