Tonight's Poet Corner: Yochanan's Gift

Yochanan's Gift
by Belinda Roddie

"God is gracious, God is
kind. God will give you a
pat on the back from time to time." Those were

the words that Yochanan gave to me when I was
half-drunk in the full strawberry moon -
June fever ran rampant, lunacy lived up to.
He gave a hand for me to grab and
yanked me from the melted tar bubbling under my
stolen leather shoes.

Yochanan left prints on my
hand that glowed gold when I tried to
sleep, and never once did the hue fade
until I snapped the neck off a bottle and
drained its blood into the gutter.
That damn little boy was given such a

clumsy name, yet there was nothing but
grace laced between his eyebrows, drizzling the
smile he cast me when he saw me three months
later, full harvest, bearing fruit,
grinning with silver buttons I bought myself,
gold patted on my back.