Dan Lukiv, M.Ed.
English and Creative Writing
McNaughton Centre, Quesnel, BC, Canada
E-mail: lukivdan@shaw.ca

1.
These guardians of the
Sanctuary, blowers of war
Trumpets and singers before
Men of battle, how their war
Apart from swords and bows
And spears would succeed
If they “did just so,”
Like Noah who built
An ark not of wood
That sailed eight through

2.
Tents for three million [?],
Quartered into four winds,
About a hub of Levi and
Axle of prayer and sacrifice:
And the signs:

Flags of the spider, bear,
Ox, or bramble bush aflame?
Icons of hybrids with bull heads
And human hands?
Precedents for later glory flapping
In wind, amongst dead soldiers?
Precedents for carvers to shape
Blocks of wood into fish gods?

3.
Pharaoh’s firstborn lay dead in
His arms, as he howled, like a
Beast-man in pain, while Amon-Ra
Slept, somewhere. And the exodus
Of those firstborn spared by the

Angel’s sword
Carried a price: “Eye for eye,
Tooth for tooth.” Such higher
Math would calculate
Work for Levi, as…gatekeepers
And singers, in a melody of
Blood poured out,
And for now,
This would be enough.

4
Place the Ark in an unsteady
Wagon. That should be fine.
And take fruit from God’s tree.
That should be fine too.

5.
Sarah’s belly had not swelled this way,
And even though she gave birth
Through her wrinkled form,
Her thigh had not fallen away,
Her bowels had not robbed her of
Joy.

6.
These unpruned vines—
A Jublilee crown!—
Like leaves that rustle
And grapes that swing
In hillside winds—

More clean than snow,2
These people soaked
In milk, gleaming like
Precious stones, rosy in
Promise—

Even their skin would dry
Like bark in a desert
If they split their oath
In two.

7.
Fine grain, like the thump-
Thump of a good heart,
And hands unperfunctory—

8.
Unlike the priests of bewept
Bacchus the drunkard,
The Levites wore clothes, washed
Clean, like their bodies,
Prepared like ministers of a greater
Priest, who would shake his head
At naked clothed men, and tell them,
“Get away from me, you workers of
Lawlessness.”

9.
These aliens, who inherited
No earth, but also ate greens
Bitter like the slavery that made
Pharaoh fat, chewed the cooked
Lamb or goat, roasted whole,
Skinned, its bones unbroken.

How these non-owners of land
Ate unfermented cakes. If the lamb
Were much more than a lamb,
And the day were much greater
Than the day of slaughter, who
Would the angel of death
Passover?

10.
Hobab, eyes that see torrent
Valleys and trails, and peaks
That saw wind, were you
A great crowd that left Egypt
Too, and would you be a greater
Crowd that feeds a king and
Gives him water and clothes?

Would you leave Babylon, one day,
For thorny plains and bushy
Hillsides? Would you be an alien
Resident who eats the unbroken
Lamb too?

Moses invited you to scout about,
To become part of something greater
Than all the wild land
In bloom.

11.
And from Moses slices
Of spirit departed and
Gave 70 others wisdom
To decide and point. And
So he stood more whole
With less, like a simplified
Star.

12.
Of the three flowers,
Mirian was the oldest—
And a prophetess!—
A jewel amongst women!
A song herself ahead of
The corpses bobbing in
The Red Sea. The plagues
She saw and frogs she
Heard! The words she
Spoke as God’s lips!

13.
After the Nile had turned to blood,
And frogs filled kneading troughs,
And gnats landed on “man and beast,”
And swarming gadflies bit Egyptians,
And animals died,
And people grew sores,
And hail pounded flax and barley,
And locusts ate leaves by the ephah,
And darkness filled the land like leprosy,
And the king’s son died,
And the pillar of cloud kept watch
By day, and the pillar of fire by night,
And the sea parted,
And manna dropped off clouds,
And Moses’ face emitted rays,
And Jehovah’s glory filled the tent,
And fire struck down Nadab and Abihu,
And Miriam felt the fright of loneliness,
Ten spies said entering the land of grapes
And figs was not a good idea.

14.
How men with faith in their
Legs have been sawn
Asunder, pelted with stones,
Tossed into the muck of wells,
Placed in stocks, bound,
Whipped, lit afire to burn
As streetlights, fed to dogs
And lions and bears,
Abandoned in the clash of
Battle, burned at stakes,
Nailed to stakes, skinned
Alive, drowned, beheaded,
Starved, chained, imprisoned,
And pummelled.

15.
One day enlarged fringes
(Topped by blue thread)
Will speak out words such as
“I am not a Moabite!”

This will be good,
Because simple people should
Understand at a glance who is holy
And who is not.

And better yet, men with enlarged
Fringes should pray in noisy streets,
With arms outstretched like
Hyperbolas. 3

16.
Dathan and Abiram, were your bellies
Cheated by Reuben who slappped Jacob’s
face 4—O so long ago! How dare Moses’
Taking up your space!

17.
Now that the earth had finished
Eating people, and fire from the sky
Had finished burning up Korah and
His friends, almonds awakened, like
Prayers lit up, or the sun rising
Above desert howl. The winter bud,
The white and pink blossoms, the white
Hair of sense, the word that never
Tumbles, the symbol of all murmuring
That should die like a dog. How early
The countryside would boast of purpose
Soft as stone. Even in winter. This gift
From Jacob to Pharaoh. But this greater
Gift cut out all the tongues of all the
Foolish men already dead.

18.
Ground black, coarse, grey, or raw:
Make a promise, soap. Make glass.
Make hypertension.
Louis,
Make the French Revolution.

Trade lumps or slabs for gold or grain;
Moors,
Pay the Roman wage for
Flesh-slashing,
The Greek wage for slaves not
Worth it.

Vince spilled some. That
Late Supper. Judas’ upturned
Saltceller,
His doom,
Unhonoured below the grains?
Unhonoured intestines!

19.
The entire red cow,
Even its dung, burned
To ash sprinkled with
Flames of hyssop,
for one. Then how it mixed
Into water, to cleanse,
To fall short of
Infinitude, to remain
A shadow of blood
That washes even the
Organs of men.

20.
After Moses and Aaron had
Glorified themselves to death,
Jacob sat on a rocky hillside
With Esau, his brother, as stew
Bubbled in a pot above flames.

Jacob said, “My brother, gold
And silver I will give you, if, please,
You share with me your stew.”

Esau said, “Keep your hand from
My ladle, brother, or my strong
Men will chop it off.”

21.
See the copper snake,
And people limping, arms
Outstretched, eyes wide,
Faith in their gaze.

How strange, that people limping
Too, in pain from wounds internal,
Would look to one cursed like a
Serpent, hung on a stake:

How their faith would not fill their
Eyes with the believe of demons, 5
But their hands with things
They’d do.

22.
Yes, great nephew of Abraham,
Happy in your land of gorges,
And bleating flocks, feel the warm
Hand of Lot on your shoulder,
See his nodding head, as you stir
Curses and dread into the wind that
Smells of the Dead Sea. This is good,
Your withholding grain and water
From your own blood. Why should
You befriend your brother, or his God?
Why?! You have Chemosh of murdered
Children, and your wonderful
Start in life. You have
Vineyards and orchards, and pastures
Wider than your clever thoughts. Why
Should you worry about this God of
Plagues and seas that part like a divided
Heart when you know you will last
Forever.

23.
Balaam, juggler of unlucky
Omens and darkness that
Fills an orange sunrise, would you
Trip Jehovah, extinguish his
Flame, disperse his cloud?
If only you could reach across
Time, would you also proclaim,
“Impale him! Impale him!”—
For a price? Would you, like
That high priest viper, also
Pronounce a curse:

24.
What is Moab with a
Broken skull? When will
Amalek join him in his
Blood-soaked grave?
How fast will Edom run
Off a cliff? Where will
Seir hide from his last
Breath? Who will pour
Water on Kain when he
Bursts into flames? Why
Did Assyria love to skin
His enemies?

While history builds ships
That conquer, the answers are
Bats and shrewmice
In caves that reek.

25.
How little faith should a man
Possess if he is to worship
His belly, like Zimri?

And this thumbprint, unbound by
Time or songs of the unprophets,
Shall leave its mark on a fiery day
Not yet filled with its own
Ashes.

27.
As the final door approached
These wilderness nomads,
A stir of great change held out
Hands to Joshua, who would not
Know his God “face to face,”
Nor the dignity of the man who
Rejected Pharaoh’s glory.

But the Urim and Thummin,
And faith broader than winds
From the Great Sea,
Would, like eagle wings, carry him
Across Canaan’s twisted
Sons.

28.
This “restful odour,” sweet
Like a maiden’s prayer,
A shepherd’s song,
A newborn’s first breath—

29.
These sound bulls will
Do for now, but eventually
Men of intelligence will choose
The lame or sick or blind.

30.
An un-mother—
Taunted by Peninnah the
Laughless crow—vows
To never put a razor to
Her son’s hair, and to give
Him up after one last drink
Of herself—

Her husband, who loves her
As he loves his own peace
And right hand, will not annul
Her request to be whole even
By a son not there.

31.
Midian, tent people,
Anchored here and there
In cities, but not
Abraham, and there you
Are, aflame, your homes
And walls aflame; so many
Dead alongside five kings,
Dead, alongside money monger
Balaam, doomed to Moab’s
Glory, to Baal of Peor’s
Glory, the grave. How many
Camels do you have? How
Many virgins? How much gold
Did your belly not hide?

32.
Sihon and Og, dead. Gone
Like dust swept out a
Doorway. And if Gad and
Reuben and half their
Other brother build “stone
Flock pens” and cities but,
Like debauched men who
Think their God can’t
Hear their lies or
See their lust engaged or
Smell their lame sacrifices,
Imagine they are free to
Sleep and not chase their
Enemies alongside all their
Brothers,
Then their “sin will catch up”
With them, like a hungry
Leopard that leaps upon a
Goat.

33.
After the gods of Egypt
Found shadows to hide
In, and families buried their
Firstborn while Abraham’s
Children walked quickly
Through dust to Rameses,
New gods would stand up
In revolt, like El the great
Sovereign of Canaan, who
Castrated and dethroned his
Dad. El, who loved murder,
Adultery, and any unfair
Advantage. His hair and
Beard grey, like the wisdom
Of a frog.

His example for all men. His
Brilliance, out of the shadows,
For now. His pricks, waiting
For the eyeballs of Israel.

34.
Simeon, with Shechem’s blood
In his right hand in hand
With Levi: Fathers of revenge!
Ostracism! See their belt of
Fury! Their feet shod with a cruel
Death! See them scattered: 7
Levi inside Simeon inside
Judah the lion.

35.
Abel lives! The ground has
Given back spilled blood!
The history books, rewritten,
No longer drip! Zechariah, yet
Unborn, lives! How much
Sweeter the air smells! How
Much better the figs and
Grapes and pomegranates
Taste! Look at Molech. He
Has starved to death. Into
The earth as dust he has fallen.
All the murderers have withdrawn
Their swords and whispered,
“Let me not sin.” Singing fills
Lungs and valleys and little
Homes of love.

36.
Would a man’s vineyard
Or field of wheat pass into
The air? See the cherub with
A lion’s face:8 How could
Jehovah ignore daughters
Of families with no men? Did
Rachel die barren? After the
Death of his beloved mother,
Who found for Isaac
Rebekah with the water jar?

How long will a man spill blood
For gods of bellies and clouds
Upon his vineyard and
Field of wheat before marching
From the north brings the collapse
Of stone walls and tearing down of
Heavy gates? How long will a
Continent fade like a old garment
Left in the dust to gather dew and
Things that crawl?

Copyright © 2009 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.

2. Lamentations 4:7-9.

4. Reuben had intercourse with his father’s (Jacob’s) concubine, Bilhah. For this, Reuben lost his firstborn right of a double blessing.

5. James 2:19.

6. John 11:50.

7. Genesis 49:5-7.

8. Ezekiel 1:10.

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