"[ When I Was a Faith Healer ]" - Gregg Murray

 

 

 

[ When I Was a Faith Healer ]

I cut my teeth on the hopeless. I'd hold
their hands, ask with patience what cares

were cursed. The devils that in amorous
colloquy made them weep openly.

They knew it was alright, and I worked
through recollection. I was a technician.

I gave them the reason, backed by a vision.
I moved on to the wicked. I was led

into the heavy rooms. Family members
stood at cracked doors, fingering beads

and crosses. I summoned kinder forces.
My pyrotechnics were practical, flares

and flint, kindling and rabble-rousing,
rending, espousing. The hell was hot,

love was water. These days grew longer.
In middle age I turned to the blind eye.

It was my sports car, my affair, my turn.
There was never enough money to burn.

I was a physician of the Lord. It took
time to feel the word, to see demons

in the iris black as cataracts. Lay on
the hands, lay on the scalpel, no one

understands the science of spectacle.
There is no guide for the impossible.

But I'll say this, diligent student, I believe
it respectable, noble, even regal,

to make way for the miracle.

 

 

Gregg Murray is Assistant Professor of English at Georgia State University and the founding editor of Muse /A Journal. He is the featured reader at Word of Mouth open mic, Wednesday, September 6,

8:00 pm at The Globe, Athens. "[ When I Was a Faith Healer" ]  appeared online in diode poetry journal. He will be reading at the Decatur Book Festival on Sunday, September 3 at 3 pm on the Java Monkey stage.