ELSEWEIRD
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W.W.J.D.
"This is my body," said the man,
and no one heard above the din
of plate and pot and serving pan
save the one who knew the sin
of lying better than his master,
knew true teaching could begin
only when at last catastr-
ophe'd muddied their sandals some.
A parable's fast, disaster's faster.
Stale bread? Bad wine? Quite frankly none
of these would bring an acolyte
to give himself for anyone.
Jor-El, my father, sacrificed
himself, his world, and all he loved,
betrayed it, like that other, thrice.
He knew why Krypton's mantle moved,
its seashelves sinking, orbit shot.
His every theory, tested, proved. . . .
Yet no one guessed but him. His lot
was silence as he turned away
to save his son, and, through me, not
a minor portion of each day
our race had served beneath our sun,
our only Rao, which Dad's survey
had shown would bleed, begin to run,
at long last blast itself, like me,
out into void, Rao's will be done.
On the one hand, host, the other, holy.
The one, the other's faith and fear.
It's not the begotten but the "only"
part of "son" that matters here.
So, yes, each J. gave up stuff, shed
some shell to show what should cohere.
But did he do right? Should he have fled?
We're told, with rope, one made it good.
I think, though, like his master did,
he got hung up on would.
Bryan D. Dietrich's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Paris Review, The Nation, The Harvard Review, The Yale Review, Shenandoah, and many other journals. Winner of The Paris Review Poetry Prize and a "Discovery"/The Nation Award, Bryan has published two books of poems, Krypton Nights and Universal Monsters.
copyright © 2008, Bryan D. Dietrich
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CONTENTS
FICTION
—An Apotheosis
FORREST AGUIRRE
—Annabel on the Eighteenth Floor
C. L. BRUSSEL
—Stuck
JASON ERIK LUNDBERG
—Rhapsody in Transverse Vibration
MARC SCHUSTER
—The Red Door
ERIK SECKER
—Nadya
ZDRAVKA EVTIMOVA
POETRY
—W.W.F.
BRYAN D. DIETRICH
—W.W.J.D.
BRYAN D. DIETRICH
—Several Stories, Single Bound
BRYAN D. DIETRICH
—Peniel
MICHAEL NEAL MORRIS
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