with yeshua at the pool of bethesda
by Jeremy T. Karn
Monrovia/Paynesville, Liberia
“I have not been able to touch the destruction within me.” - Audre Lorde
elizabeth bishop should've said the art of losing healing isn't hard to master. healing doesn't come from sowing seeds of prayers but flowers growing in the mouth.
i knew my cries by heart. & i want a god that'll make a heaven of my body, t teach me how to pull spit on my hands & rub it on a heart tracing grief & say “rise, take up your bed and walk.”
i want to settle for anything that makes me forget my uncle’s death & then notice the healing in m my voice,
because this body has been bulged with grief. i want to keep holding yeshua inside me until i feel anew.
Jeremy T. Karn
Jeremy T. Karn writes from somewhere in Liberia. His works appeared & forthcoming in the 20.35: Contemporary African Poets Anthology, Hoxie Gorge Review, Vagabond City Poetry, Ghost Heart Literary Journal, Whale Road, IceFloe Press, Lolwe, FERAL Poetry, Kissing Dynamite, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Olongo Africa, Liminal Transit Review, Auto Focus Lit, and elsewhere. He is the 2020 winner of the ARTmosterrific editor choice award. His chapbook (Miryam Magdalit) has been selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani (The African Poetry Book Fund), in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2021 New-Generation African Poets chapbook box set.