“And Jehovah Proceeded To” © (1)
Dan Lukiv, M.Ed.
English and Creative Writing
McNaughton Centre, Quesnel, BC, Canada
E-mail: lukivdan@shaw.ca
1.
Abraham also offered you,
Little turtledove, perhaps
Snaring one of your skinny legs,
As you pecked away at grain or
Seeds or clover, between your
“Turr-r-r turr-r-r,” your plaintive
Cry of freedom and shyness and
Quick escapes into the sweet
Sky.
With your head nipped off
And your blood drained on the
Altar’s side, your sacrifice
(A poor mother’s cost)
Would stand by sons and daughters
Born crooked,
Even by a greater Isaac born
Straight.
2.
Grain-bubbled,
Like un-naked Adam
In leaves,
Like old figs that make birds
Wobble and collapse,
Like liar prophets
And teachers of caves
In the heart—
O simple bread
Aflame on the altar
Atoned for much
Less than a perfect
Man on a stake.
3.
Washed, restored: now
The meal of peace, meat
Chewed by priest and
Seeker of peace: approval—
The chill of falling short
Departs for an hour.
4.
Splattered and poured,
But not spilled out of Abel
In an agony of theft,
Neither imbibed to gods
Nor any Hypocrates,
This cistern of breath,
This shadow of a perfect
Mix,
Should, like that fruit
Stolen, touch no man’s
Lips.
5.
See the ring of defect,
Men arm in arm,
Their lips almost sealed,
Except for the “shhh!” they
Aim at each other,
As their silence becomes
Shovels digging their
Graves.
6.
Will a man who finds another
Man’s treasure keep it safely
Hidden? Will his son? His
Daughters? His wife? Will they
Keep it buried beneath their
Tent? Will he keep a golden idol
Buried in the soil of his heart?
Will his family dig about in his
Heart, searching for their faces,
Their bad dreams, their freedom?
Will they all hold hands and sing
Songs of joy, and will he say, “O
Jehovah, bless us, for we are
Your children”?
7.
Kidneys from dark places,
Aflame, like thought,
On the altar:
Who can step into the heart,
And search the hallways?
Or open doors in the kidneys?
Or find ships harboured in
Secret bays in the bowels?
8.
Keep awake, O Aaron in his
Turban and robe, sash and
Ephod, and his sons, keep awake.
Why should they disgrace themselves
With death? Why should they suffer
A greater nakedness? After that
Edomite Herod rebuilds that worn-
Down temple, the Officer will search
For watchmen dozing, who do not cry
Out, “O officer of the Temple Mount,
Peace be to thee!” (2) Dozers beaten,
Their garments burned. See how they
Run naked. But this greater nakedness.
This will take a king-priest to describe
Such shame.
9.
Vanity and self-will:
Do these arms embrace visions
And empires? After the fire—
Poured from the pillar of cloud above
The tabernacle?—turned fatty
Pieces into sizzle and smoke, did
The mark of the priest boast a
Clever shape for Abihu and
Nadab? Did they see a better
Way in the shimmer of flames?
Did their arms let greater glory
Fall?
10.
Who will beat
His breast, or weep,
Or remove his headdress
And sandals for men
Who mould their
God?
11.
This wall, like stones
That surround a great city,
Plugged with camels and
Rock badgers, hares and
Pigs, eagles and osprey
And vultures black, red
Kites, black kites, ravens,
Ostriches, owls and gulls,
Storks and herons, hoopoes
And bats, mole rats and
Jerboas, newts and
Chameleons—
This wall, like a great
River that flows between
Oil on one side,
Vinegar on the other.
12.
Their troubled faces
Weren’t covered by fig leaves,
So long ago.
And now, rams and young
Pigeons don’t really cover,
Not after 40 days, or
80. The shame, the shame
Runs so quickly. The lineage
Of that fruit won’t let
Go.
13.
But this deeper leprosy,
Erupting in scabs,
Blotches, boils, scars
Upon the beating heart—
Who can see this twisting of
Flesh before the pus, the
Baldness, the loosened nails
Proclaim themselves—
Before the fingers, limbs,
Nose, and eyes decompose
The man that looks normal
To the eyes of those who
Love him for who they
Imagine he is.
14.
Was this mildew, or mould,
These patches of yellow-green or
Red, marking stone and mortar,
Sharing space with fathers who
Would teach their sons upon their
Own knees and write so many
Laws upon doorposts? Would
Malignancy share rooms with lips
That speak out in darkness,
“O my Jehovah”?
15.
Years later, so many pools,
Hewn in brick or stone, thirsty
For conduits of clean rain,
For “cups and pitchers and
Copper vessels,”(3) for the glory
Of men bathed and sure that they
Certainly were not hyperboles
Of any mathematical design
Because they had clean skin.
16.
On this day of unwork,
A shadow of a curtain torn,
And corpses tossed from their
Own graves,
Aaron, not a Melchizedek,
Or a curtain torn,
Did not stand before the Throne
Washed by emerald light,
Nor did he have anything
Foursquare to offer,
But he did this work,
Like a man holding glory
That did not belong to him;
He did this work.
17.
What vessel of blood
Joined “goat-shaped
Demons” to Egypt? Who
Turned from the pillar of
Day cloud and night fire
To dung pellets or satyrs
Or demons or things
Without sense or he-goats
Or things monstrous and
Hairy?
And in the backdrop where
Terrifying thoughts and lust
And goat-legs dance about,
Is that Panic or Faunus?; is that
The covering cherub with tail
And horns and cloven feet
Wandering through the Dark
Ages of time?
18.
Molech of the fires
And children cleansed and
Cooked, of the screams
And drunken fathers and
Blood link to Baal, of
A crown heavy enough to be
A large boy, of the red hot
Bull’s head, a bloody link to
The sun-god and horns that
Weren’t actually rays—
Moloch, Molech: who would
Unzip the heart and let the dark
Things escape,
Or who would force them to leave?
Molech the hungry,
Fed by mothers and fathers
And madness.
19.
Soldiers still alive
Flee to crags to die,
And yet a remnant of
Good grapes and olives
Will build a temple. Ears
Of grain will feed widows
Unaware of their own
Glory. And not even the
Herods will keep the
Hillsides of Edom
Unbare.
20.
If Jehovah vomits a man
Out of his mouth, will he
End up in the ashes of
Molech’s belly? In the
Cackles of a sorcerer? In
The unnatural relations of
Men, women, and beasts?
In the things discarded by
Women? In the roadways
Of Nebo and Astarte or
In the glorious tombs of
Egypt?
21.
No mums, here:
No eyes without shine,
Legs crooked,
Humpbacks,
Noses slit,
Hands too long,
Feet broken,
Testicles crushed,
Skin flaked or body
Emaciated. No hearts
Like callused hands.
No lambs unsound
In Egypt. No king
Priest a bent image
Of his father’s face.
No momos, here.
22.
Muzzle the threshing bull.
Eat a mother bird and her
Eggs or chirping young too.
Boil up a sheep and its offspring
Between two sunsets.
Slaughter a bull likewise.
Leave Abraham’s children
In Egypt, to feel the sting
Of more whips.
23.
Two loaves leavened with
Adam’s bite. Taste his breath
In the wind, in the bread,
And on the skin of men short
And tall and black and white.
One loaf for them and one for those
Not them: Loaves of the firstfruits,
Of the first to find themselves
Unbound.
24.
Shelomith of the lion cub,
Daughter of many words,
Mother of a son pelted
By stones: Can a son be
A daughter, a mother, a
Father, a whole nation,
A world like Nimrod?
25.
Sound the ram’s horn
And watch the land rest,
While unpruned vines go wild,
And grain and fruit grow from
Untainted seed;
Blow into the curved horn,
Listen to the blast of liberty,
See the things spun unravel
As houses and land become again
The sunrise of even those unwise
And destitute. Re-set the scales.
Chop up the debt into chaff for the
Wind to chew.
Listen to the greater horn. How all
The leaven in all the blood will simply
Disappear, while all the freedom
Everywhere will taste of chains
Undone.
26.
How many sabbaths add up to
70 years of thorns and thistles,
Jackals and lions?
How many sabbaths filled
Sarah's womb with
Night howls?
27.
A melody, but not for harps
Once upon a time a man
Gave his wheat field to Jehovah,
But then sold it. Selah!
Once upon a time a man
Dedicated himself to Jehovah,
But then shook hands with
The world. Selah!
Copyright © 2008 by Dan Lukiv. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
1. All Biblical quotes and references: The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1984). Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York.
You are invited to join AE Extra staff!
Send your ideas and/or writing sample
to the Editor-in-chief:
Elizabeth Haller
Kent State University (e-mail: editoraee@hotmail.com)
Academic Exchange Extra invites reader response to any writings in this issue--especially articles advancing the scholarly debate of issues raised.
Web Master: Nicholas Eastham
