In Detention

St_John_the_Baptist_in_the_Prison_1_.jpg
Establishment challenger
Confronter extraordinaire
In a call for justice
That backfired on me.
 
Baptising forerunner
Who set him on his way
Now silenced behind bars
With doubts creeping up on me.
 
Health restored; sight back;
The demon-possessed freed;
Prophecy fulfilled
But what of me?
 
Synagogue scroll in action
Post-Capernaum
But prisoners still inside
Including me.
 
One last word about my cousin:
Violent hatred
Will come his way too
But certainly not from me.
 


John the Baptist responds to news about Jesus
Luke 7: 18-35
 
October 2010


St John the Baptist in the Prison – by Juan Fernandez de Navarrete, © 
By kind permission The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg