David Hornibrook
Poetry
David Hornibrook is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and the Michael R. Gutterman award from the University of Michigan. His work has appeared in Day One, Five Quarterly, The Columbia Review, Flyway and elsewhere. He holds an M.F.A. from the Helen Zell Writer’s Program.
Theology
I wonder if they taste the rot bloom in the mouth
as a wooden ship might feel ghost life stir
when planks remember briefly how it felt to grasp the earth
I’m as far from the love of Jesus as you can make it in winter
in this place where a bible is a nightstick
where love is a chokehold
& mortgaged temples grow new wings each year
while snow falls so heavy over the baby in the plastic manger
now the mother’s up to her neck
but even the most trusted disciples turned like locks in their sleep
while nearby a mountain heaved quietly into the sea
Faith means God is hiding somewhere on the rim of this disaster
all this anger mistaken
for righteousness all this white noise
Grace means every curve of the earth will listen
every edge fail
Heaven on Earth means
a land where blinds can never close entirely
somewhere still subject to change
as a wooden ship might feel ghost life stir
when planks remember briefly how it felt to grasp the earth
I’m as far from the love of Jesus as you can make it in winter
in this place where a bible is a nightstick
where love is a chokehold
& mortgaged temples grow new wings each year
while snow falls so heavy over the baby in the plastic manger
now the mother’s up to her neck
but even the most trusted disciples turned like locks in their sleep
while nearby a mountain heaved quietly into the sea
Faith means God is hiding somewhere on the rim of this disaster
all this anger mistaken
for righteousness all this white noise
Grace means every curve of the earth will listen
every edge fail
Heaven on Earth means
a land where blinds can never close entirely
somewhere still subject to change
“ ‘Theology’ was inspired by some lines from Andrew Collard, current events and wondering what Jesus might think about the current state of Christianity. ”