{"id":80,"date":"2016-06-25T03:04:55","date_gmt":"2016-06-25T03:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/staging\/?p=80"},"modified":"2026-05-28T23:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:09:15","slug":"poetry-george-elliott-clarke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/poetry-george-elliott-clarke\/","title":{"rendered":"George Elliott Clarke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>I &#8211; Book of Ruth<\/h2>\n<p>1. Famine devastated Israel\u2014<br \/>\ndespite the Peace, Order, and Good Government<br \/>\nthe Judges had conjured up.<\/p>\n<p>2. (Famine is a sanitizing sewer:<br \/>\nIt\u2019s as scouring as a waterfall,<br \/>\nbut as scourging as poison gas.<br \/>\nUseless is Hunger.)<\/p>\n<p>3. So, some somebody of Bethlehem<br \/>\nexited, with his helpmate and two boys,<br \/>\nseeking the greenery and Fertility of Mob\u2014<br \/>\nthat sugary geography,<br \/>\nyielding white honey, white milk, white wine.<\/p>\n<p>4. This sojourner (pilgrim) was Miles;<br \/>\nhis wife, Naomi;<br \/>\nand their sons were Mileage and Chili.<br \/>\nThis petite tribe put down stakes in Mob,<br \/>\nhoping, \u201cGrass, ruminated over,<br \/>\nalways wells up milk and\/or honey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>5. But, evilly, Miles dropped dead.<br \/>\n(Dude was an ephemeral patriarch,<br \/>\na vaporous archetype.)<br \/>\nNaomi was suddenly a single mom<br \/>\nto two restless, healthy swains.<\/p>\n<p>6. Once big, Mileage wed Oprah<br \/>\nand Chili took Ruth.<br \/>\nThey loved happily\u2014a decade\u2014in Mob.<\/p>\n<p>7. Then, sorry news ancora:<br \/>\nMileage and Chili expired.<br \/>\nNaomi was now a childless widow.<\/p>\n<p>8. Three hubbies had proven as short-lived<br \/>\nas dethroned dictators.<br \/>\nAll gone into graves as hollow as sepulchres.<\/p>\n<p>9. Their corpses were blackened,<br \/>\nacrid like night,<br \/>\nstaring down Sahara sands.<\/p>\n<p>10. Naomi felt she was like a paintbrush\u2014<br \/>\nsplayed, frayed, splintering:<br \/>\nReady to be trashed.<\/p>\n<p>11. Time to quit the posthumous barbed-wire,<br \/>\nthe thorny thickets:<br \/>\nA threesome of dead gents had turned pastures<br \/>\ninto brambled graveyards.<br \/>\nZephyrs had gone noxious<br \/>\nas bellies had gone nauseous.<\/p>\n<p>12. Naomi told her widowed daughters-in-law\u2014<br \/>\nOprah and Ruth\u2014<br \/>\nshe\u2019d quit Mob and go to Israel,<br \/>\nand line up for the homeless dole\u2014<br \/>\ndaily dollop\u2014<br \/>\nof manna.<\/p>\n<p>13. The three widows\u2014kin by marriage,<br \/>\nbut not by blood\u2014<br \/>\norganized Naomi\u2019s travel (back) to Israel.<\/p>\n<p>14. Next, Naomi advised Oprah and Ruth,<br \/>\n\u201cEach of yas now return to thy mamas,<br \/>\nwho ought ta be gracious to yas,<br \/>\nfor having husbanded our dead.<\/p>\n<p>15. \u201cMay yas both be welcomed<br \/>\nby your dead mammies\u2019 fam-lees.\u201d<br \/>\nShe kissed em both, to say<br \/>\n\u201cFare-thee-well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>16. Naomi meant to drag em down<br \/>\nby their eyes\u2014<br \/>\nthese hardship blondes;<br \/>\nthese hard-done-by,<br \/>\nhard-lookin bimbos.<\/p>\n<p>17. Ruth and Oprah wept.<br \/>\nThey protested:<br \/>\n\u201cWe wanna stay by you!\u201d<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n18. Naomi nodded No:<br \/>\n\u201cLookit: I got no more sons in my womb.<br \/>\nZilch! I can\u2019t give you more husbands\u2014<br \/>\nguys to care tenderly for you.<\/p>\n<p>19. \u201cLeave now, beloved sisters of Grief,<br \/>\nO sad-eyed daughters of Despair!<br \/>\nI say again: I\u2019m too old to remarry.<br \/>\nI\u2019m too old to breed anew;<br \/>\ntoo old to suckle babes.<br \/>\nI can give you no more husbands!<\/p>\n<p>20. \u201cBesides, even if I could, via God,<br \/>\nfind my womb wet, my tits wet,<br \/>\nand I could conceive, birth, and suckle twins<br \/>\n(like the wolf did Romulus and Remus),<br \/>\nhow could ya both tarry with me,<br \/>\nplaying kiddy games with my boys,<br \/>\ntil they were old enough to know themselves men<br \/>\n(say, by age 16),<br \/>\nwith desire to wed, bed, and breed<br \/>\n(not necessarily in that order),<br \/>\nand then pray successfully<br \/>\nthat they\u2019d choose ya both as brides\u2014<br \/>\nMILFs\uf02a\u2014<br \/>\nand not next-door, snotty, precocious teen tarts?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>21. Oprah and Ruth wept a deluge now.<br \/>\n(But Naomi speaketh simple truth, Ruth.\uf02a)<\/p>\n<p>22. Quickly, Oprah packed a knapsack<br \/>\nto quit the sterile widow,<br \/>\nsnatch up a sugar daddy somewhere:<br \/>\nShe was still nubile, fuckable.<br \/>\nWhy go hungry?<br \/>\nWhy be lonesome?<\/p>\n<p>23. She sang: \u201cI\u2019s gone.\u201d<br \/>\nHer tone was horse-ass-high, horse-head-haughty.<br \/>\nSo went the down-n-dirty hotty,<br \/>\nswishin her bustled bum-bum,<br \/>\nher tight-ass bum-bum.<\/p>\n<p>24. But Ruth clutched Naomi tighter.<\/p>\n<p>25. Naomi shoved Ruth off\u2014<br \/>\nheld her at arm\u2019s length,<br \/>\nsaid, \u201cTut, tut, dovey!<br \/>\nOprah\u2019s willing to own<br \/>\nher Destiny:<br \/>\nWhy doncha follow her?<\/p>\n<p>26. \u201cI\u2019m like a rainbow\u2014halved\u2014<br \/>\nlike assets in a divorce.<br \/>\nWorse: I got nothing!<br \/>\nI\u2019m zero in total,<br \/>\nin fine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>27. Ruth negativized this summation:<br \/>\n\u201cWhatever you\u2019ll eat, I\u2019ll eat.<br \/>\nWherever you\u2019ll eat, I\u2019ll eat.<br \/>\nIf you starve, I starve.<br \/>\nWherever you\u2019ll sleep, I\u2019ll sleep.<br \/>\nIf you camp under trees,<br \/>\nand rain or dew needle thy face,<br \/>\nmy face will be just as wet.<br \/>\nThy God is now my God.<\/p>\n<p>28. \u201cWhere thou diest, Naomi,<br \/>\nthere diest I.<br \/>\nWhere thou art buried, or burnt,<br \/>\nor flung,<br \/>\nso must I be interred, or torched,<br \/>\nor hurled.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>29. Realizin that Ruth won\u2019t be shaken off,<br \/>\nNaomi quit agitatin for a solo sojourn.<\/p>\n<p>30. The pair trod desert to Bethlehem,<br \/>\nwhere, astonished were the citizenry,<br \/>\nasking,<br \/>\n\u201cArt thou truly Naomi\u2014<br \/>\nHusbandless, sonless, homeless, penniless?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>31. Naomi arrested such Denunciation,<br \/>\nsuch implicit Scorn,<br \/>\nby stressing that an evil, tireless wind,<br \/>\na tiresome wind,<br \/>\nhad blown down all her blessings.<\/p>\n<p>32. \u201cJeez,\u201d said Naomi:<br \/>\n\u201cDon\u2019t call me \u2018Naomi\u2019 evermore!<br \/>\nCall me Mara\u2014bitter\u2014<br \/>\nbecause the Lord hath crushed out<br \/>\nall my sweetness.<\/p>\n<p>33. \u201cI\u2019m the victim of a Conspiracy<br \/>\nas evil as a spider\u2019s\u2014<br \/>\nas diabolical as what entrapped Job.<\/p>\n<p>34. \u201cDay after day, no one sees the sun spying.<br \/>\nAnd the moon, rising in China,<br \/>\ndoesn\u2019t hear my Israeli sobs.<\/p>\n<p>35. \u201cI once had Plenitude\u2014<br \/>\nenough for an Eternity.<br \/>\nBut God\u2019s planed me down to Destitution,<br \/>\nand my double-lineage is dead\u2014<br \/>\nGenealogy buried under Geology:<br \/>\nMy sons are two headstones.<br \/>\nMy husband\u2019s but a third.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>36. This acrid homecoming occurred, ironically,<br \/>\nat harvest\u2014<br \/>\nfor barley from surrounding fields<br \/>\nwas being weighed and priced<br \/>\nand scooped for sale;<br \/>\nor it was being sacked and stored;<br \/>\nto be kept or bartered in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p>[Waterford (Ontario) 12 avril \/ Nisan<br \/>\n&amp; Black Friday the 13th aprile mmxviii<br \/>\n&amp; Buffalo (New York) Friday the 13th April mmxviii]<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIV\u2014The Book of Ruth.<\/p>\n<p>1. Rambunctious emotions roiled<br \/>\nBoss\u2019s blood.<br \/>\nAs if sanctimonious, he\u2019d consult elders.<\/p>\n<p>2. He cat-whistled compiled the Kaffeeklatsch<br \/>\nof 10 oligarchs,<br \/>\nspat, \u201cSit yo brown duffs down!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>3. Boss brought up Naomi\u2019s current tender<br \/>\nof nice parcels of arable property,<br \/>\nthe profit intended to be her pension<br \/>\nand her daughter-in-law\u2019s support.<\/p>\n<p>4. Boss argued that to buy from Naomi,<br \/>\none must also buy from Ruth.<\/p>\n<p>5. \u201cY\u2019all gotta make the grand purchase,<br \/>\nfor Ruth, outta Mob, is wifed to our dead kin,<br \/>\nand his inheritance will be void, otherwise.<br \/>\nHow else to resuscitate his name?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>6. But Boss\u2019s kinsmen\u2014<br \/>\nthis petty bourgeoisie\u2014<br \/>\nwere let-downs:<br \/>\n\u201cNo can do.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cAin\u2019t got the cash-on-hand!\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cWe\u2019re NSF.\uf02a Thou art S.O.L.\u201d\uf02a<br \/>\n\u201cYou\u2019re solo, Padrino.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>7. (In these ancient times in Israel,<br \/>\nto affirm a pledge re: money matters,<br \/>\na man had to pluck off his shoe<br \/>\nand hand it to a neighbour.)<\/p>\n<p>8. Now the kinsmen\u2014not cash-rich enough<br \/>\nto do the doubled-up, real-estate deal,<br \/>\neach plucked off one shoe\u2014<br \/>\n(a motley mismatch of lefts, rights,<br \/>\nsandals, brogues, sneakers, flip-flops,<br \/>\nin leather or canvas\uf02a)\u2014<br \/>\nand planted it in a general pile,<br \/>\nall to affirm their collective view<br \/>\nthat Boss should outlay the cash<br \/>\nto the two widows,<br \/>\nto grow his plantation exponentially.<\/p>\n<p>9. They recognized that Boss\u2019 chess pieces,<br \/>\nso to speak,<br \/>\nwere bulls\u2014<br \/>\nnot mere horses, mere pawns.<\/p>\n<p>10. Boss assented:<br \/>\n\u201cY\u2019all now witness that I\u2019ll buy up<br \/>\nNaomi\u2019s lands.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>11. And he added (so slick):<br \/>\n\u201cBut not only am I collecting Ruth\u2019s share,<br \/>\nI\u2019m annexing her\u2014<br \/>\nMileage\u2019s widow\u2014<br \/>\nto wife me and so preserve<br \/>\nher dead husband\u2019s legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>12. The kinsmen shouted, \u201cHurrah!<br \/>\n(The roar sounded like buzzing\u2014<br \/>\nall those huzzas.)<\/p>\n<p>13. \u201cWe\u2019re witnesses to this agreement.<br \/>\nMay Ruth be wholly beneficial for Israel<br \/>\nand become famous in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p>14. \u201cAnd let thy household multiply<br \/>\nlike the household of Parvez<br \/>\n(whom Tamar bore for Judah),<br \/>\nonce you breed Ruth,<br \/>\nfor she be a basket of seeds:<br \/>\nTo be pampered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>15. (Here be the intersection of sex<br \/>\nand property interests.)<\/p>\n<p>16. So Boss took Ruth as his\u2014<br \/>\nhis sweet, comely, syrupy cuntella.<br \/>\nTo drape her snowy bust<br \/>\nwith gold necklaces.<\/p>\n<p>17. Their lovin occurred amid<br \/>\nan inferno of green\u2014<br \/>\na volcanic eruption<br \/>\nof green-sheathed ears of gold corn.<\/p>\n<p>18. (After the green bed of the fields,<br \/>\nthere were black fragrances of rum<br \/>\nand chocolate.)<\/p>\n<p>19. Each kiss was a guzzle\u2014<br \/>\na festive gulp\u2014of tongue.<br \/>\nTheir kisses were a happy guttling,<br \/>\nseemingly, of flesh.<\/p>\n<p>20. Ruth\u2019s knees stirrup\u2019d her hubby\u2019s thighs.<br \/>\nAs her belle-chose scaled up his beam,<br \/>\nthen plunged down,<br \/>\nrepetitively,<br \/>\nBoss feared his brain was truncated:<br \/>\nHe was so delirious due to that joint crotch<br \/>\nwhere Carnality fluxed, pulsed, throbbed.<\/p>\n<p>21. (Padrone\u2019s \u201cstable\u201d saw less [rough] usage:<br \/>\nRuth was pleased to feel her new hubby\u2019s snipe,<br \/>\nwiping, swabbing, to and fro in her honey.)<\/p>\n<p>22. And thus was Ruth\u2019s hungered cunny<br \/>\nnightly plungered and watered and refreshed,<br \/>\nso that soon flooded forth Boss\u2019s son.<\/p>\n<p>23. And all the women praised Naomi,<br \/>\ndeclaring, \u201cThe Lord hath blessed thee,<br \/>\nand now thou shalt have descendants.<\/p>\n<p>24. \u201cAnd Ruth\u2019s son will be as good to you<br \/>\nin sickness and in old age\u2014<br \/>\nas if you\u2019d borne the boy thyself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>25. Her childless want now terminated,<br \/>\nNaomi saw her breasts suddenly enhanced,<br \/>\nmiraculously recharged, refloated,<br \/>\nbloated beautifully with milk,<br \/>\nand she suckled the newborn infant<br \/>\nso much she felt again like fucking<br \/>\nall the time, incessantly.<\/p>\n<p>26. Widowed kinsmen began to pay<br \/>\nNaomi visits, ringing her bell and bringing gold<br \/>\nor myrrh or pearls or handsome cuts of lamb.<br \/>\nNice was it to curl up with one of the fellas,<br \/>\nnow and then, with the lights out,<br \/>\nand Privacy and Discretion assured.<\/p>\n<p>27. As for the boy babe,<br \/>\nNaomi loved even his smelly blushing<br \/>\nwhen he made caca.<\/p>\n<p>28. And the neighbor women named the child,<br \/>\n\u201cObadiah Loving,\u201d<br \/>\nand they considered him Naomi\u2019s son,<br \/>\nwho\u2019d later father Jesse,<br \/>\nwho, in turn,<br \/>\nbegat David.<\/p>\n<p>[Halifax (Nova Scotia) 28-29 abril \/ Nisan mmxviii]<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIII\u2014The Book of Ezra.<\/p>\n<p>1. Dawned the 7th month:<br \/>\nEx-Babylon, all Israelis were again urbanites,<br \/>\nand communally held cattle, mules,<br \/>\nall vital wares and tools,<br \/>\nand even the peculiar estates<br \/>\nkept up by singers, poets, and \u201clucky bastoods\u201d<br \/>\n(the dynamic detritus of scrota).<br \/>\nAll were ready now to crush rock<br \/>\nand dent stone.<\/p>\n<p>2. A crown is just a gutted hat, eh?<br \/>\nBut Jeshua got to sport one,<br \/>\nin tandem with Zero<br \/>\n(both blessed by a posse of priests),<br \/>\nby arranging for the ochre-coloured stones<br \/>\nto be employed in engineering God\u2019s Altar.<\/p>\n<p>3. (The sounds of the stones being trundled,<br \/>\ncut, rolled, pushed, and crowbarred or bashed<br \/>\ninto place,<br \/>\nexecuted a sort of sloppy be-bop.)<\/p>\n<p>4. Once the Altar was ready,<br \/>\nJews served up blackened meats\u2014<br \/>\neven birds\u2019 bitter, ground-down bones\u2014<br \/>\nto please God\u2019s nostrils<br \/>\nand keep His alliance versus the heathen tribes.<\/p>\n<p>5. Cleavers broached chickens\u2019 necks;<br \/>\nsteam squeaked and squealed outta kettles;<br \/>\nsneaky hammers slapped into calves\u2019 brains:<br \/>\nThus, the tabernacular feasts got kept\u2014<br \/>\nthe burnt offerings set out\u2014<br \/>\nmorning and night.<\/p>\n<p>6. Incessant were the dishes\u2014<br \/>\npresented on new moons and other holy days,<br \/>\namid the comic menstruation<br \/>\nof slain poultry, cattle,<br \/>\nin the dinning, braying, bleating, roaring Butchery.<\/p>\n<p>7. From Day 1 of the 7th month,<br \/>\nmeats got seared and scorched and charred\u2014<br \/>\nto induce God to respect Israelites\u2019 murmurs.<br \/>\nYet, the Temple was still more a blueprint<br \/>\nthan it was even a basement.<\/p>\n<p>8. Masons got handed coins; carpenters pawed cash;<br \/>\nthe proletariat got furnished hors\u2019doeuvres<br \/>\noff the snack trucks\u2014<br \/>\nwine, sandwiches, milk, honey, beer.<br \/>\nMeanwhile, Lebanon\u2019s cedars got lopped,<br \/>\nlogged, to be sculpted up in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>9. One year after the return to Jerusalem\u2014<br \/>\ni.e., in the 3rd month of the 2nd year\u2014<br \/>\nJeshua and Zero appointed the Levites<br \/>\nto oversee construction<br \/>\nand the crafting,<br \/>\nthus directing the gallant, God-enchanted\u2014<br \/>\nnever famished workers\u2014<br \/>\nwhom, despite being so well-victual\u2019d,<br \/>\nstill let wine and beer leak down their throats<br \/>\nin unholy draughts\u2014<br \/>\nwithout ever letting up.<\/p>\n<p>10. The people\u2014priests, stone-cutters,<br \/>\naxe-men, carvers, blacksmiths, poets, vintners,<br \/>\nbutchers, cooks, bee-keepers, shepherds,<br \/>\nsingers, milkmaids, wet-nurses, medicine men,<br \/>\net cetera\u2014<br \/>\ntoiled\u2014<br \/>\nespecially those muscular, hefty, bearded,<br \/>\nbrawny, beefy, and virile\u2014<br \/>\nor Amazonian or Juno-like.<br \/>\nNowhere was any dishonourable sweat!<\/p>\n<p>11. The Temple foundation laid,<br \/>\npriests dressed up with trumpets;<br \/>\nthe Levites\u2019 fists bashed cymbals:<br \/>\nPaeans to God\u2014no caw-caw of blues\u2014<br \/>\nrose cantankerous, brash, into the air.<\/p>\n<p>12. Voices spurted, blurted, song\u2014<br \/>\nto appeal to God for constant Joy<br \/>\nand to ballyhoo the Temple construction.<\/p>\n<p>13. Seeing the new foundation dug and concretized,<br \/>\nthe elders, recalling the original Temple,<br \/>\nfelt Emotion well up in their throats<br \/>\nand spill from their eyes.<\/p>\n<p>14. Like two streams conjoining<br \/>\nin a slippery ditch,<br \/>\nweeping mixed with boomeranging shouts,<br \/>\nas Celebration reverberated\u2014<br \/>\nas if the Temple stones, set in place,<br \/>\nrepresented a cargo ferrying Rebellion\u2014<br \/>\na Lego-block Trojan Horse (so to speak)\u2014<br \/>\nnow canting against years of furious,<br \/>\nrapacious, cannibalistic, and dirty, filthy,<br \/>\nAssyrian-Babylonian Imperialism.<\/p>\n<p>[BDL\u2014Windsor Locks (Connecticut) 3 mars mmxviii]<\/p>\n<p>VIII\u2014The Book of Ezra.<\/p>\n<p>1. Paternity is a question of Maternity (always);<br \/>\nbut the following rabble accompanied me,<br \/>\nEzra, as we exited Babylon:<\/p>\n<p>2. 1,496 grumbling scoundrels\u2014<br \/>\nsome as cunning as butchers<br \/>\nor barbers\u2014<br \/>\nand all dudes\u2014as if ladies don\u2019t count.<\/p>\n<p>3. At that river that runs\u2014<br \/>\nlike a gilded ditch\u2014<br \/>\nto Agawa,<br \/>\nbirds blundered down from the thundering sky.<\/p>\n<p>4. I gathered the teachers, the poets:<br \/>\nI sent em to seek out Edouardo,<br \/>\nil duce of Casablanca,<br \/>\nto tell im to cull the best servants<br \/>\nand ship to Jerusalem to serve<br \/>\nat the Tempio.<\/p>\n<p>5. I wanted the Solomon, the Confucius,<br \/>\nthe Jefferson\u2014these types of thoughtful governors\u2014<br \/>\nas servants in the Tempio.<br \/>\nOmit any opioid-addled imbeciles!<br \/>\nMen of insight\u2014solely\u2014for the Ministry!<br \/>\nAbcedarians: Prosaic, sobre, sombre!<br \/>\nNo one cooking up greasy, sugary, fatty,<br \/>\ncheesy, salty, or buttery verses!<br \/>\nNo psychopaths or sycophants!<\/p>\n<p>6. Choice profs, designated by name.<br \/>\nMen of bons mots and bon sang.<br \/>\nGood breeding and good heads.<br \/>\nNo bastoods!<\/p>\n<p>7. By the River Agawa, I told all to fast.<br \/>\nWe should travel with God\u2019s Grace,<br \/>\navoid obstacles, hindrances,<br \/>\nand hazard no bellicose periplum.<\/p>\n<p>8. Perhaps I should\u2019ve hired on a few<br \/>\nof King Tax\u2019s troops as a Secret Service detail;<br \/>\nemployed a few guys as callous as are muscles.<br \/>\nBut I\u2019d said that God\u2019s Protection was enough<br \/>\n(\u201ca virtual bombshell gainst our enemies\u201d)\u2014<br \/>\nand I couldn\u2019t retract the sentiment.<\/p>\n<p>9. So, we prayed for God\u2019s Protection,<br \/>\nand we fasted.<br \/>\nI believe that God gave us His Assurance.<br \/>\nWe\u2019d not end up as caca\u2014<br \/>\nlike any spontaneously aborted fetus.<br \/>\nNor feed hungry bullets!<br \/>\nNor fall to insects matured to monsters.<\/p>\n<p>10. I selected 12 priests, 12 aides,<br \/>\nand weighed out pounds<br \/>\n(in \u00a3 sterling)<br \/>\nof copper, silver, gold\u2014<br \/>\nall to be poured into the Tempio\u2014<br \/>\nand gave the guys \u00a3650 of silver<br \/>\nand silverware,<br \/>\nplus \u00a3100 of copper<br \/>\nand \u00a3100 of gold.<\/p>\n<p>11. I added also 20 gold bowls<br \/>\n(reborn from sun-dials)<br \/>\nworth \u00a31000,<br \/>\nand two candle-holders of bronze<br \/>\nas lustrous as gold.<\/p>\n<p>12. I told my clerical secretariat,<br \/>\n\u201cThou art holy in God\u2019s sight,<br \/>\nas are the clusters of precious metals<br \/>\ngiven into thy stewardship,<br \/>\nbut consigned to God.<\/p>\n<p>13. \u201cWatch over\u2014preserve\u2014these treasures<br \/>\nand weigh all carefully before the Temple<br \/>\ncongregation at Jerusalem.<br \/>\nAny discrepancy in amounts\u2014<br \/>\nbetween now and then\u2014<br \/>\nwill be considered red-handed Theft<br \/>\nand there\u2019ll soon be footage<br \/>\nof thy heads tumbling off thy shoulders.<br \/>\nBest hear me! See?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>14. And so the 24 got outfitted<br \/>\nwith their weighed and weighty cargo\u2014<br \/>\nthe shiny filing of the caravan\u2014<br \/>\nand then they disappeared,<br \/>\ndwindling into the horizon,<br \/>\ntoward Jersualem.<\/p>\n<p>15. Then the remainder of our number,<br \/>\non the 12th of Nisan<br \/>\n(aprile or pluvi\u00f4se),<br \/>\nleft the Agawa River Canyon,<br \/>\nbound also for Jerusalem.<br \/>\nBut heathen foes\u2014those unbridled sewers\u2014<br \/>\nthat hoard (or horde) of dung\u2014<br \/>\nawaited us in ambush.<\/p>\n<p>16. But God smacked em down as easy<br \/>\nas if each were a spineless horsefly.<br \/>\n(Decay they now in fathomless dirt.)<\/p>\n<p>17. Reached Jerusalem. 3-day march.<br \/>\nRested 3 days.<\/p>\n<p>18. On Day 4, we laid out the treasure cargo<br \/>\nin the Tempio.<br \/>\nIt was an encircling spillage,<br \/>\nand each item got weighed<br \/>\nas light shot from the gleaming metals,<br \/>\nirradiating the chamber.<\/p>\n<p>19. Once exiles, but now liberated<br \/>\nfrom Slavery,<br \/>\nwe now offered God our burnt trophies:<br \/>\n12 bulls, 96 rams, 77 lambs, and 12 goats.<br \/>\nButchers stood game to cut throats,<br \/>\nwhile chefs turned arsonists<br \/>\nat fireplaces.<br \/>\nThe day was literally \u201cslash-and-burn\u201d!<br \/>\nTemporarily, the Tempio seemed<br \/>\nan alabaster abbatoir,<br \/>\nan uncontainable charnel house.<\/p>\n<p>20. Now was the time for me to deliver<br \/>\nthe Diktats of King Tax<br \/>\nto the provincial governors beyond the river.<br \/>\nAnd no grudging \u201casphyxiation\u201d<br \/>\nin the telling!<\/p>\n<p>[Nanaimo (British Columbia)<br \/>\n5-6 Nisan \/avril mmxviii]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Enoch 4: 1-18<\/strong><br \/>\nGod sculpted wenches way too well:<br \/>\nThus, even superior angels fell,<br \/>\nbrawling to inseminate<br \/>\nbeauties, and brats cultivate.<\/p>\n<p>Fast, they tutored Eve in Venus guile\u2014<br \/>\nthe tricks of mirrors, chimes, face-paints,<br \/>\nand how to tinkle to act arousing,<br \/>\nand how to bewitch, twitch, switch, and sway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3986,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions\/3986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}