Jonah
“The word of Yahweh was addressed to Jonah…: ‘Up!’ he said, ‘Go to Nineveh, the great city, and inform them that their wickedness has become known to me.’ Jonah decided to run away from Yahweh, and to go to Tarshish.”
Jonah 1:1-3
I’m telling you, you are in for it if you hear Yahweh’s call
to witness. I thought it was a curse.
My next folly was when I imagined I could
reason with Yahweh about the outsiders in Nineveh.
Worse, that I could wander out of God’s sight
like when, as a boy, I sneaked off to play at the river’s edge
after Mother warned me not to—
The current nearly took me.
I caught a merchant ship heading west for Tarshish.
And I want to tell you I was scared
when our heavy-laden boat started rocking,
pitching bow-to-stern in a tumbling sea,
the sailors’ gods paying no attention.
Slowly, it occurred to me that I was headed the wrong way,
that it was my will ruling and roiling my insides
to seasick and vomiting all over myself
as I hid in the hold. Hid. Hah.
So I climbed up on deck and shouted to the thunder,
I give up. Throw me over or I’ll jump.
Wet-weary and sinking into the sea,
I suddenly felt a buoy slide under me,
a great, gray fish slicing the waves,
making a straight way toward shore
where I lay down on sun-soaked sand,
limp, dazed, free.
The foreigners weren’t bad, really.
They fed me, gave me sandals and a new cloak.
But when I recovered, can you believe
I started arguing with Yahweh again?
Patience had to teach me once more
about freefall, at wit’s end,
when you sigh, Take me. I’m yours.
Winner of Orison Books’ 2023 Best Spiritual Poem and a 2024 Naugatuck River Best Narrative Poem finalist, Merryn Rutledge‘s work has appeared widely. Her collection Sweet Juice and Ruby-Bitter Seed is available from Kelsay Books, where her next book, To Carve a Path Through Thickets, will be published in 2026. Merryn enjoys teaching poetry craft and reviewing poetry books by women. She lives near Boston, MA, USA.
Amethyst Review 