What's John Writing?

     Who's that writing? 
     John the Revelator. He wrote the 
     Book of the Seven Seals.

My mother laughed at herself:
after all the thought she’d devoted,
simply naming her children Mary and John.

Yochanan. Johnny. YAHWEH is gracious.
During the middle ages,
a fifth of all English boys were named John.

So many John’s!
I can hardly stand being addressed as John,
or infuriatingly asked,
is John short for Jonathan?

John Th' Baptist in the desert with his locust feast
can’t eye the dance like a salty beast.
He’s nothing now but a hairy head
lying on a salver, stony dead.

John finally owning their name.

Who art worthy? Crucified and holy,
bound up for sin, Son of our God.
Daughter of Zion! Judea’s lion! 
He redeemed us, Jesus bought us
with his blood.

Moses, Moses, watching the flock,
saw the bush where they had to stop.
God says, Moses, better take off your shoes,
‘cause out of the flock, a-well-a
you I choose.

Jack-o’-lantern. Jack knife.
Pretty, snoring John O’Dreams.

When in the known is only what is known,
then John is not by that.
When John is not by that, they're not therein.

When in the seen is only what is seen,
then John is neither by that nor therein—
nor here, nor there, nor in between. 


Probably written in late 2015 or early 2016.