HOODJESUS emblem: a faceless hooded figure with a gold halo and open hands, LOVE • THE • VERB

HOODJESUS

Coming soon to a hood near you

The Hidden Walk

Thirty-nine years. Nobody knew.

A crowd in the rain; one hooded figure walking through it, unnoticed
I

Thirty-nine years. Every city. Every crosswalk.

Nobody looked twice. That was the plan.

A hand scatters seeds on a cracked sidewalk; small gold sprouts rise
II

Seeds don’t need permission.

I dropped them in the cracks. The concrete couldn’t stop what was already growing.

Under a bridge, a hooded figure places a small light in a young person’s palm
III

I was looking for the salt.

Under bridges. On corners. The next leaders of the New Jerusalem were never in the front row.

A crowd looks up at a giant painted face on a billboard; a hooded figure walks past behind them
IV

They hung a face on a billboard and called it me.

Blue eyes. Soft hands. Somebody else’s picture. I walked right past it.

Gold light rises from a hooded figure as dark threads from a vast shadow over a city loosen and dissolve
V

The strings were never real.

Truth doesn’t fight the shadow. It shows you you were never tied.

At dawn a hooded figure looks over a waking city, light at the edge of the hood
VI

Hood still up. Light still coming.

Not I. We. Balance restored, one block at a time.