A different fisherman

After Luke 5:1-11

He came to my boat, dusty,

asking to push off, from shore,

from the press of the crowds

clamoring for a piece of him.

My boat, now a platform

for the crowds to hear, multitudes

desperate to touch him, touch

the words spilling softly

from his lips and falling upon

our ears, alternately washing

and burning. With everyone else,

I listened and watched: rapt faces,

enraptured hearts. Then he pointed

and tells me to fish, fish where

there were no fish, his words

stripping my pretenses, crushing

my knowledge, searing their way

inward. We caught fish where

there were no fish, and then

we abandoned all, to follow.

Painting  by Jacopo Bassano (1545).

The boat, the man, the sign

The boat was there

   then gone

the man was there

   then gone 

They sailed across the sea

   to find the bread

   again 

the bread in the desert

the bread on the hillside

take, eat the bread 

but more than bread

   they wanted a sign

a billboard, preferably,

  large and garish,

   obvious

a neon light

   large and flashing 

so that they would know

know without looking

   foolish

and others would know

know without feeling

   foolish 

a sign, a sign

wall we ask is

a sign

all we ever ask is

a sign

the substitute

for faith 

The sign stood in front

   of them

the obvious sensed

   but unseen 

Painting: Christ preaching on the Sea of Galilee by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625).