“In the Old Testament tale, Jonah is a prophet who doesn’t want to be a prophet. He gets the call from God, says “Hell, no!” and runs the other direction. He goes so far as to book passage on a boat across the sea, trying to escape his commission. It doesn’t do any good. His destiny chases him in the form of a giant storm. Because all sailors and boatmen are essentially superstitious, they decide someone on the boat is to blame and draw lots in order to choose who to sacrifice to the sea. Our man Jonah draws the short straw and is tossed overboard,where he is swallowed by a great fish. After spending three days in the belly of the great fish he’s deposited near Nineveh, the city which he was commissioned to preach to: repent or be destroyed. So he figures he will either die in Nineveh or God will keep punishing him until he dies, and goes to Nineveh and preaches for them to repent. Which, they do! Except then Jonah’s mad because he went through all that and didn’t even get to watch godless people burn; and he’s sitting on a hill overlooking the city, listening to them worship God and watching them not die horrific deaths. God then grows a tree over him to shade him from the sun, and Jonah praises God. And then God takes the tree away and Jonah complains. Then God asks him who the hell he thinks he is, to question God?”

In these poems, Parsons alternately questions and embraces, demands, condemns, and praises. In the end, just being blown off course doesn’t change a person’s destiny.