The Eunuch God
- The Eunuch God
He walked in the sun Over that rocky land He sweated and wiped it from his eyes Perhaps he had a hairy body That became wet and dried on successive days Without roll-ons or sprays There must have been times when for us He wasn’t nice to be near.
He had guts A pancreas and spleen To do whatever they do Glands that let loose Spit and enzymes to soften his food Turn it into a soft mass In his guts Which means he had to shit Certainly you’d expect him to wipe his ass Afterwards Because he had guts There must have been times when they bothered him Rumbled with tension With so much of his father’s business to do Worrying about the publicity Keeping one step ahead of the crowds Who got harder to please.
And please God He had balls and a dick And please God Was able to use them While being also the son of man If he didn’t then God help him [End Page 309] And you who have cut them off anyway To make him one of your simpering wimps. My people and I know about that And your crosses And the way you have of Emasculating your fears.
Gerald Barrax was Professor of English, Poet-in-Residence, and Editor of Obsidian at North Carolina State University at Raleigh. He is author of four volumes of poems, Another Kind of Rain, An Audience of One, The Deaths of Animals and Lesser Gods, and Leaning Against the Sun. In July, 1997, From a Person Sitting in Darkness: Selected and New Poems, his fifth volume, was published by the Louisiana State University Press. He has recently retired to West Chester, Pennsylvania.
