The Prophet
by Jim Morgan
When Jonah got the call, he freaked out,
refused to go, jumped a ship--
Tarshish--the other direction.
It was too much, the burden--
Prophecy. A prophecy that,
in the end, was only four words:
“Forty days; Nineveh overturned.”
What’s more-- everyone heard.
Nineveh changed. No fire. No brimstone.
And Greta? Her call came when she was eleven--
A lesson at school, a burden
her brain would not put down.
No boat for Greta--that would come later.
Her escape: stop eating, waste away.
Her body stopped growing as her mind
sharpened to a single point:
“We do not know how long;
the world will burn.”
Jonah tried, but couldn’t escape--
the storm, the fish, three days inside.
Greta’s prophecy burrowed into her,
eating at her for years. But
when it began to emerge, it built her up.
She started alone, a knapsack and a sign.
One person joined. Then two, then three--
The growth became boundless,
not just a city but the world.
“Jonah’s tidings reached the King.”
Not just Greta’s tidings but Greta herself
went to the top: schooling, at sixteen,
Presidents, Prime Ministers, Popes.
Useless to mock her. No one can
demean her because it is not about her.
It is her burden, her frail frame
simply the vessel.
Nineveh and Nineveh’s King:
they listened.
How will we respond
to Greta’s call?
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