Baptism

When he was old enough for politics

Jesus went splashing on the Jordan's bed.

He ceased to be a Jew and joined instead

The Apostolic Roman Catholics.

Then he went dropping homilies like bricks.

"He who seeks heaven with an unwashed head

Will see the kingdom with his arse," he said,

Shouting the odds, wagging his crucifix.

Only his mother got there unbaptised,

Which proves she waved goodbye to mother earth

A good Jewess, staunch in the faith and steady.

Heaven had got her soul well organised:

Why rub and scrub a thing that came to birth

As white as someone's laundry line already?