Robert Nazarene
Robert Nazarene founded MARGIE Review/IntuiT House Poetry Series which published the winning volume for the National Book Critics Circle Awardin 2006. He is the author of two volumes of poems: CHURCH and Empire de la Mort. His poetry has appeared in AGNI, Iowa Review, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Ploughshares, Salmagundi, The London Magazine and elsewhere. He is founding editor of The American Journal of Poetry.
Along the Interstate
EXIT 28
Jesus asleep,
snoring in a rowboat stored
on a boat trailer in a cow pasture.
EXIT 59
Jesus on a tractor
pulling a hay-wagon
loaded with dynamite.
EXIT 111
Jesus squatting a rock
playing harmonica: "This Land is My Land"".
EXIT 129
Jesus pulling seeds
from an old hippie's
orange shag carpet.
EXIT 165
Last in line at the Tasty Freeze
Deciding between a Dreamsicle
And a mustard seed sundae.
EXIT 213
Sitting in the center
of a circle of Apaches—
listening to The Truth, smoking peyote,
guzzling gin.
EXIT 312
Jesus in a headdress, beside a wigwam
straddling a taxidermy buffalo,
posing for photos, watching the sky.
Exit 370
Planes racing overhead—roiling
storm clouds—then the rain,
then—total quiet.