You ever get tired of reading the same old poems? The ones about love, or political issues, one’s inner pain? You ever want to read something different, something rare? What if somebody could write a satire about one of the heaviest topics in humanity…and succeed? “Jesus in the Afternoon,” a piece by R. Nikolas Macioci, will fill the void of originality within the poetry world. I’d like to break down why this is one of my favorite pieces and why we chose it.
“Jesus in the Afternoon” takes you on a visual journey of Christianity’s religious leader, Jesus Christ, walking among the earth as a pure mortal. “I picture him at the Dairy Queen licking/a medium-sized cone of vanilla ice cream/while the very spot he stands on becomes sacred,/and teenagers at picnic benches gape at the man/robed in long flowing layers.” The author flows through the poem using humor as its lead while it also speaks on a serious topic of police abusing authority.
Often people don’t find police measures being dramatic while others disagree. By changing the identity of the common victim, it challenges the reader to think, What if it was someone you love or what if it was someone like you. “All good jokes contain truth” – J. Cole. While this may seem like satire at first, it’s well- hidden message is something to get the reader thinking for sure.
Micheal Brown, contributing poetry editor
Read this poem in Issue 5 of Levitate Magazine, available on our website on May 25! And join us for our launch reading on YouTube at 7 pm Central on May 25.
LEVITATE 