WAITING

--after "Jock Moves Back Home," charcoal on paper
(page 6 of Edgar Jerins Narrative Portraits)
by Edgar Jerins

There is a sadness in Jock's face, in the eyes
especially, that is difficult to account for
because he has moved

back home, back to the presence of his mother
and father, who sit in soft, high-backed
chairs far behind him,

staring off to the side at something we cannot
see, and back also to the presence
of his dog, large and

wolfish and apparently contented, its mouth
open in a somewhat grin to breathe
through, dog that sits

on the floor at Jock's right, both Jock and dog
looking almost directly at us
at something we cannot

see. Jock's beard and long hair remind me
of the Christ in the stained-glass
window in the church

I spent so many tedious hours in back home,
that familiar image of Christ
sitting on a rock

in Gethsemane, Christ waiting for some
familiar face to betray him, Christ
like Jock sitting and

waiting, like myself sitting on an oak plank
waiting, all of us int he presence
of others waiting,

alone with others waiting and looking
at something clearly visible
we cannot see.

--William Kloefkorn

(Printed with permission from Mr. Kloefkorn September 2003)