Jesus' Face

By Peter Venable

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Warner Sallman’s 1940 “Head of Christ”--
stained-glass portrait,
dust framed in church parlors,
looking sideways. Stately. Jesus?

No sir, Jesus had no Greek nose, no
shoulder-crested flaxen hair, no
Germanic cobalt eyes

But a Galilean tan--
Hebrew nose--
piercing russet eyes--
curly black hair--
dusty beard.

At the food pantry they come
with open plastic and cloth bags
as we pack juice, cereal, beef stew cans,
toothpaste and at the counter:
​
whose face looks at me?

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The writer has written sacred and secular verse for many decades. He’s appeared in Ancient Paths, Prairie Messenger, The Lyric, The Anglican Theological Review, The Christian Century, The Merton Seasonal and Windhover. His Jesus Through A Poet’s Lens is available at Amazon. He is at petervenable.com and on Facebook.

Peter's other work on Foreshadow:
A Saturday's Quartet (Poetry, June 2023)
Truth Is Subjectivity (Poetry, April 2024)
Behold (Poetry, May 2024)