Institutionalized Jesus

When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him,

for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind."

- Mark 3:21

he is out of his mind, can’t you see?

you get the straight jacket and

I’ll get the hypodermic sedative

maybe we can restrain and institutionalize him enough

so his insidious words and soul-rending power

will stop harassing us and pushing us to

the threshold of transformation and the terrifying life

of living in utter abandon in the universal love

he is out of his mind, isn’t he?

he is too far gone to be domesticated

like a grazing bovine chewing its cud

like us eating and spitting up

and chewing and swallowing obsessive-compulsively

the same old fibrous indigestible news

that this life is only what we earn and spend

protect and steal, war over and control

he is out of his mind, right?

his gyrated irises look so full of larger consciousness

his nostrils flare with majestic being and potency and spirit

maybe if we loosen one or two straps

on his gurney, maybe if we let him writhe and speak

a couple more words of astonishing goodness

he can crack our skulls and let loose our suffering brains

our restrains, our imprisoning anodyne normalcies

and we might live in his craziness and abandon

meld with his love and his enthusiastic holistic mind

not he out of his, but we out of ours