A Poem for St. Peter

The Lord be with you

Today is the Festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles. A while back, I found the following poem about St. Peter which deals with one of these great apostles, and I thought I’d share it today.

For the Feast of Saint Peter 2012
By Daniel Didwell

let yourself be led where you do not want to go—
fingers stained by scent of nets,
toes wrinkled with decades of sea,
taxes paid in coin from mouth of carp.

what other apostle is prepared
to witness such divine profanity:
sheet slung low and full
with hooves and claw and feathers?

would any of us know ourselves so well
if the voice of heaven commanded,

Call no thing unclean which I have made holy?

perhaps, like me,
you believe you should say,
“Lord, this can never be”

and before the cock crows a final time
you may be asked
to deny your own
division of crawfish and pigeon

perhaps you will not know what to do
but go out upon the waters,
throw in your line, and wait
to be overwhelmed with fishes.

so when you crawl, hauling
your catch through surf, unclothed,
be ready for the animal question:
Do you love who you say that I am?