Poetry
Lamech’s revelation
Lord, I have seen the inner workings of man and I am afraid. Poor and
pathetic: he is corrupted from the start, living in a blasted world.
But my eyes have seen the ark of salvation, which you have prepared in
secret: my own son Noah, the justification of all that is to come.
He is my Adam on whom God will pour out His righteousness. The same
God who will one day wipe away men, women, children. A bunch of
animals.
But my son will be saved and will save. For he is a friend of God, a
child of the angels.
And he shall be a comfort to his family in this season of penance and
be set high upon a rock.
And God will be feared because the world will have felt His anger.
And there shall be a covenant of peace between my son and his true
father; and never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a
flood.
For as long as there is day and night.
And my exalted son, Noah, will be the father of mankind and his name
will be remembered in every generation.
This is my dream.
Copyright 2010 Richard C Mather
The Wandering Jesu
Coming down from the cross,
Naked and bloodied,
He picks up a tattered shawl
And puts it around his striped shoulders.
He sees himself still hanging there,
The God of the Christians,
The icon of Jew-hatred.
He reads Torah by day
By day he wanders the earth at night
For 1,918 years
Looking for his brothers
Whose bones cry out from Russia to Poland
From Iraq to the Reich.
At last! He finds them in Canaan
Armed with spades and rifles,
Laughing with the Mediterranean sun.
They do not recognise him
They care little for his hollow cheeks
And grey beard.
The messiah has already come,
Risen up in their own blood
Put to work through their own hands.
Zion is his soul
And Israel is his body
His mouth Nazareth
His left hand Tel Aviv
His right hand Jericho
His left foot Ashdod
His right foot Hebron
His heart beating Jerusalem.
Copyright 2012 Richard C Mather