Jesus as King

People fell down on their faces
Before the carpenter’s son,
The blue collar worker.

Some needed something,
And knelt before the potentate,
Asking a boon.

Some tried to arrest him,
And, midway, fell to the ground
Before the God King.

I fell asleep thinking of
Jesus as sovereign.
Majesty: what does it look like?

Narnian High King Peter is a boy,
Nice enough but not regal.

King Arthur shares his stories
With knights and wayward wife—no help.

Fairy tale princes are imaginary,
Without details to flesh out royalty.

Then I thought of Eugenides,
King of Attolia,

Most awesome of all protagonists.
When baited by a hostile nobleman,

He held his peace, but only barely.
His ambassador felt

Relieved and angry at the same time,
Wishing that the Attolians could know
How close they had come to disaster,
And grateful that they didn’t.
He looked across the tables at the young man
Whose insult had roused the danger.
That one, he thought, looking at the courtier’s white face,
Had looked Eugenides in the eye.
He knew how near disaster he had been.