Where We Come From

"Nazareth? Can anything good come from there?" John 1:46

The Kid from Nazareth

I didn't come from the good side of town
or the right side of the family tree, scorned
for my clothing, color accent I come
among you to give life.

You turn away, your eyes averted
I am not your kind and you flinch with
pity and disdain, disregarding the golden
flower, the blossoming possibilities, fruit
that you could bear through me.

I sat with the nerdy kids, walked by you
every day to laughter and lacking invitations
I danced alone for you anyway.

I come from bad stock, dark suspicious beginnings
a teenage mother, shotgun wedding, raised in camps
and trailer parks, where misery is honest raw
pain is evident, food is shared.

You raised your fist when I smiled at your children
locked the door when I came to play turning
away with eyes that didn't see me, I am
not like you, you broadcast wide.

Prison was my destiny you said and there
I landed for loving the world and speaking
truth and love in the temple and on the streets shaming
you and the learned ones with bow ties and legacies
death row was my reward.

And suffering, crimson drops of life poured out bleeding
love spent for others, denied and desired pouring
across a barren landscapes of agony turning
envy and cruelty into lush green fields of plenty
branches stretched out but not from your vines.

I have come that you have life and abundantly you
found ways to break my spirit but she flies all the more gracefully
she lifts on the wind and dances on unseen updrafts singing
songs of freedom to all, surrounding the broken with fresh limbs giving
poor their plenty, bread and wine, I am the bread of life.