I had just finished reading the entire Bible...all apologies
"Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death."
-T.S. Eliot-
Cancel the Resurrection, stop the rehearsals and
Hold the portents.
Bring up the slaves and waters to a cleared shearing floor with
Stacking boxes and metal tools.
Turn around the wise men, shepherds and sheep alike.
Bring to an end the endless
Flights of angels,
Stow the soldiers boots and scabbards,
Clean out again the thinking rooms, the
Houses full with pregnant thoughts.
Recall all Kings and Beggars, Knights and Merchants.
We've a new Messiah.
Remove the despondent Jews,
Remove the black-haired Judas,
Remove the wise man and scholar.
Cast a vote against them.
They see people that look like trees,
They quietly divorce one another,
They fall like lightning from heaven and
Loved the praise from men.
"Let the dead bury their own dead."
Remove the Pharaoh and his witch.
Remove the Serpent with his egg.
Remove the plotting Caiaphas.
Do not allow a sorceress to live.
They sit still and are neither warm nor cold.
They kindle fires and stand among the ashes.
They worry and fret and fast.
The stones themselves cry out.
Remove.
An old man waits in Nazareth with quill and ink,
An old man waits with dust and water,
We sit here with dust and water.
The Anakites wait for redemption with old tired eyes.
"You too will be gathered to your people."
I dwell among you.
The twelve wait asleep in the gardens of the world.
They wait with tempting baskets and robes.
The world hates them. They wait.
The physician dressed in an antiquated cloak waits on the gallows.
At his twisted feet lay fennel and pearls.
He wears a dead man's coat and waits.
The oracles wait for the turning of the stars.
They hope for the turning.
Atop Peor they wait, overlooking a wasteland.
They wait with silent tongues.
Corinth waits with alabaster rows of acanthus leaves.
Learned and babbling they wait.
We pray for the shaken land and tear it open.
We pray on swollen knees before open graves.
We pray with big letters, see what big letters we make.
The blood is on us and on our children.
We are the blood, the life of the creature is blood.
We are born in blood and buried in potter's fields.
We wait in Nazareth.
We wait in our stone houses under covered Asherah poles.
Have we done enough to be saved?
We wait.
We sleep.
We dream.
We sleep and are glad to sleep.
-dem bones-
--After The Fall--