Kimberly Weikert   

The Christening

 

We have warred – my Father and I
He calls me stubborn, resistant, and beautiful.
I spat in His face, crawled to Him on my knees
and loved Him with every inch of my being.

It is a rebellious, fervid tangle
much like Jacob’s at Peniel.
I often wonder if Jacob licked His thigh
and tasted the briny flavor of a sweat soaked God.

A mucky, grunting, intensive, feverish fight
that left Jacob wounded –
maimed, forever marked for all to see.
But he had a new name.

I have been lifted from my knees
face upturned, to gaze upon beauty
still hidden from eyes focused inward
whose fall have I claimed as my own?

When Your finger touched me from
ethereal bounds, I shivered
because I knew I too had been chosen.
I want a new name.

 

 

 

Kimberly Weikert earned her Master's degree at St. Bonaventure University where she studied Victorian poetry and prose. She is the director of the Twin Tiers Writers Workshop, a group in western New York that meets weekly to turn prompts into prose.