Institutionalized Jesus
by Michael Coffey

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