Canticle for the Eastbound
II
And the Lord said to him: This is the land,
For which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to thy seed.
Thou hast seen it with thy eyes, and shalt not pass over to it.
Parting before us, the dust cloud swept up and crafted a pathway
Formed by the walls of the cloud, it directed us south, and we scrambled
Veered back quick as the city became as Gehenna, becoming
Slave to the Pit; the original wish was the north, but I gambled,
Aiming beyond in uncertainty, though it is better to take the
Chance and go further, as the distance between Jerusalem’s burning
Body and these two, the better, as soft sand crunched underfoot, the
Thought of pursuit drove both of us tumbling in desperate, yearning,
Wayward abandon, descending the steep hills laid at the feet of
Zion is troubling when it is carefully done, so the danger
That had ensued from running away is becoming a greater
Threat than Roman patrols could ever be, then, it is stranger
That the aroused dust clouds led us there, in the dark, in the terror
Over the highlands, finding ourselves in the spaces between hills meeting
Only the air, and we slide and we tumble in smoke and debris, the
Hills are together as wings of an angel, the merciful seat seen
Over the Ark of the Covenant, forming a bridge of demise for
What was our path to escape; thus, both of us stumbled, Destruction
Taking its interest when we began the descent of a great fall
Downhill, Abaddon tearing our clothes as we fell, its abduction
Veering us down to the base some thousands of cubits away, the
Stones and debris that covered the steepened descent in its glory
Tearing away at our clothes as it ripped into pieces our flesh and
Hair, sand flooding the wounds, as a dusty memento tu mori
Should we survive the ordeal, if our broken, immobile remains were
Hardly enough a reminder of this truth, then the delivered
Agony should be sufficient in that short fall, and amounts to
Merely a moment of falling before the repeated, embittered
Bounce and again on the sharp stones that form Zion’s descent down
Hill; as we slowed to a roll, and the final injuries sustained in
This fall were felt, that faint call of Destruction, the Angel
Abaddon, beckoned to both of us, death lurked there, and it reigned in
Both men falling on Zion today, though, this time, this fall
Failed to be fatal; we witnessed the Angel of Death call out to
Both of us, minutes arrived and we stayed on the ground, and we heard
Whispers abounding around us, and still, we remained, not about to
Perish unclean or in this state; this isn’t where we are destined,
Though it is part of a destiny, wounded and groaning, after
Several minutes, we dragged each other up, stagnating, then I
Heard a bit clearer the call of the Angel of Death, whose laughter
Echoed about in my spirit, as coins are to rattle in temple
Treasuries; something stirred in the sand, it erupted in tune to
That dark laughter; as though it commanded us, both of us leapt up,
Leaving the ground to be swallowed by sand; it expanded, and soon to
Grow and engulf us as well, so the place where both of us fled in
Different ways – southwest, southeast; choosing the east, I
Harbored a thought of the laughter preceding the sinkhole, even
When we arose to escape; what drove us to flee, or at least try
Fleeing? the thought is the Angel of Death, the Destroyer, remained in
Both of us; when we perhaps, in evading our death once, beckoned
Abaddon, that it invited itself into what is already
Claimed by Destruction, or Death; it is torturing both of us, reckoned
That we belong to it, thus it is taking its time to correct the
Error; the Sadducee headed away, to the west, and it crossed my
Mind that this is the last time both of us would be together;
This is enough of a reason to pray, to seek what’s lost by
Asking the Lord that should His salvation descend on us, that we
Needn’t be bound to receive it; the Sadducee slew this man, and
This man saved him, if God was intending to show us a sign, thus
Always occurs, and is likely we won’t be together; the grand, planned
Narrative thought in the mind of a man born dead is to come true;
This dust rose and suspended behind us, another procession
Like that cloud we entreated the Lord to bestow, and behind us
Followed in kind, a parade of a victory granting possession
Over it — what is a victory, that is the holder of dust and
Ruin before we become the exact same thing? As the errant
Winds redirected the cloud in its patterns of providence, this man
Stumbled away, and in patterns of similar though unapparent
Fruit indecision endowed, is en route to the mountains of Judah;
High by the mountains of Judah the light of the morning positioned
Javelins of light that pierced all the clouds in a glorious theater,
Past all the dust on the Earth, and awash in the light, it transitioned
Terrible dark into grand, irresistible waves of defeated
Clouds, in concentrically formed rings; this great mural became the
Steeple of Judah as this man journeyed in mountains of strange lands
East of Jerusalem; this dust-laden locale, the acclaim of
Israel, house of the Northern divide, isn’t much of a place I
Could place Judah’s descendants: a “rugged and stubborn” terrain are
Terms all apply to its people indeed, and in sands of the south, of
Simeon and Judah, the mountains of Benjamin meet the domain far
East and encircle the north too, in part: there, this man found his
Path east; there it is, follow the sun’s place hanging position
There in the steeple, a glory reserved to celestial bodies;
This would show, in enough of a journey, the Jordan’s remission
During the fall; that time is a fortune of labor, and passes
Truly and wickedly; long to the river, at least the
Orientation by way of the skies indicate, and a fateful
Worry emerged: where would this man, in his lacking of priestly
Company, know of the ritual law? What is unclean? Though I
Know indisputable marks of the flesh, this captures in fact all
That is recalled of the Law: so if this escapade is a day or
More, is it such that anything is defiled if this man’s tactful
Tastes are restrictive enough to attempt to remain in the Law of
Moses? If that is enough, so it shall be, and this is errata
Worthy of footnote, certainly pointing to liberal diets
Barely admitted in any of the Judaic Decrees, such that a
Pharisee couldn’t critique it, and though it is clear this man was
Marked as Judean, he lacks the specifics of their revelation;
Should it be that in an ignorance, covenant laws are revealed in
Time, or is this a remissive unclean thing, whose devastation
Clings to the soul, and until it’s repented, remains as a stain of
Gentile living, and shan’t be relinquished so easily? Does food
Mind as a weapon in battles of good and of evil, or does it
Merely behave as a test that infidels fail, or because viewed
Therein, a mortal perspective is never sufficient to ponder
God’s machinations or plans, and restrictions of this sort might be
Deemed beneficial in terms that man-kind lacks, as it doesn’t
Prove to be practical, though this shouldn’t be taken so lightly,
Given the context that all the matters of purity brokered,
Written, repeated, and passed on perpetually, though it’s ignored to
Such a degree, it is truly a marvel it ever existed,
Said by the Sadducee minutes ago, so if clergy afford to
Dwell on the meaning of things in the Law, it is that much more a
Wonder if God is intending a further allotment, repeating
Joshua’s histories over again, and in this, if another
Israel ever replaces us, that the Messiah, in meeting
Heaven and Earth, should grant His salvation to Israel, having
Ushered in this fresh covenant, such as is promised to David,
Though it remains as unlikely as this man born dead finding
Reasons to journey today, in the mountains of Judah, a brave bid
Should he preserve the renewed life granting a sort of despondent
Grace, a renewal of a covenant that he remembers not, this I
Ponder in blasted arrangements of stone periodically stained by
Patches of grasses emerging in sand trails, that amidst high
Places surrounding the foot-hills, carves an unseen route snaking
South then East, and the Jordan beyond it, the Dead Sea even
Further on, where animosity kindled by Israel, Moab,
Edom, and others imbued in the water itself, to believe in
That unambiguous border, and note in a similar fashion
Such a divide in the land of Judea itself, and by Samuel’s
Hand and by God’s revelation, a fracture, an axis of tribal
Allies and rivals in David and Saul’s reign; that who enjambed cruel
Justice and foolish pursuits, and the King of Jerusalem, walking
Finely in step to a harmony their own; Saul is remembered
Sharply according to sorcery, oaths in his haste, and a lying
Spirit around him, a king God promised as such, and dismembered
After the clash at Megiddo, the penalty paid in exchange for
Fidelity lost, and behind the equipment – reluctant, capricious,
Tall, and it’s stated he’s handsome as well – Saul in a manner
Hardly befitting the Lord God’s chosen, refused the auspicious
Rest of surrender to God’s will, choosing instead to observe some
Terrible rite of embittered suspicion, and though it is true Saul
Practiced idolatry once, and in this he’s superior next to
Some of his rival’s descendants, that is irrelevant; through all
This, what sin had condemned him is pride, and despite the initial
Nature of Saul’s coronation, his vanity, hubris, and glory
Came to the light in a similar fashion, emerging to take the
Throne, as the Lord God promised to Israel, that all the more He
Granted to them that which they wanted, the worse the results; that
Hardening hearts and the sins of the king are the blight of the nation,
God is the King, and requesting additional kings is requesting
More yokes placed on the stiff-necked Israel; that no temptation,
Sin, nor transgression can ever befall God, only a mortal;
Nevertheless, it is merciful that He bestowed to us that King
David, and even he fell to his sins; the repentance of which brought
Miracles that are fulfilled in his son, as a life of attacking
Sons of our father and shedding the blood of the multitude declared
David unfit in the peaceful transition of Israel, even
Though he was right in the eyes of the Lord, and as shown, it’s enough to
Wonder if Israel should be so confident that, to believe in
David’s eventual Son, to restore and retain this people,
Should be concerning, if God is envisioning that we are Saul, then
David is coming, or that we are David and it’s Solomon that is
Coming, so that the inheritance shall be restored and recall when
Every person was chosen of God, and not merely us: that is
Reuben and Joseph, and Jacob and Esau: removing the birthright,
Then redistributing what is the father’s to grant, to his wisdom;
This is appropriate practice, and thus all of that he is worth might
Satisfy those generations to come, in the hands of the lesser;
Least of the brothers becomes first, greatest of them last, mighty
Men the defeated, and servants the victor, as God’s revelation
There in the Book of the Law has repeated; for Moses to write, he
Listened to God’s own Word, and delivered the histories, thus it
Bears providential themes to bestow birthright to the lesser,
This is in part an attempt to embody a difficult problem
Found in the Book of the Law: as it stands, if our nation’s successor
Comes of another, an origin found in the Gentile’s foreign
Grant and inheritance, then it is truly remarkable God’s own
Firstborn couldn’t interpret the Book as it came to us, that we
Chose to ignore, and behave blind, that as the firstborn, God’s shown
What it is that we inherit in time in the stories of Jacob,
Joseph, the kings of Samaria, David, and Solomon, teaching
Israel that it is never a certainty that all is coming
That is expected, and often it seems it is when we are reaching
Most, that God is intending to grant it in ways that mankind’s
Greatest achievements in letters and study surpass not a single
Stroke or interpretative flair; and such as it will be, in ways that
Human desires are dashed should they coexist, intermingle,
Thwart or co-opt God’s will to do good, and it leaves me to wonder
Which of the stars in the mural of night is above the usurper,
That of the Gentiles chosen by God to inherit the world He
Made in the place of His firstborn, that in a prose or proverb were
Clues, or if David is father to greater, concealed, and integral
People of some tribe, that of his wives in Jerusalem, foreign-
Born of Judea, and thus it befits them that the entire
Prophecy hinges on them, and fulfilled or restored all the more in
Them than this branch, some interregnum belonging to Stars and
Customs instead of the Lord God, that of presumption, supposing,
Arrogance, pride, and of course a torpidity toward the Lord God’s
Will in the interests suiting our own whims, even opposing
God if He seems to be leading His people away from what is
Promised to Jacob, and though it is chiefly the hubris of mortal
Vision, it fascinates endlessly that we refuse to accept that
Eyes of the body and mind of the soul are, in each, some portal
Failing to fully perceive, it’s the dampened or clouded perception
That we reject God, that is the only embitterment founding
These preconceptions, delusion at best, that What Is conjoining
Heaven and earth isn’t constantly looking, concerned with astounding
Love in our moments of deepest iniquity, pain, and despondence,
Some of it greater in scope, and in other occasions, a justice
That the eternal and merciful Judge grants those as a payment
Required only of fruitful endurance, as those that trust this
God are aware that any transgression deserves death, that their
Lives are sustained in a moment to moment, so any perversion
Warrants the taking of life; that man can endure shows only
That it is mercy and providence that intervenes, if conversion
Toward surrender of will is eventually recognized, that its
Prudent or living respects are subservient; that is the nectar
That feeds goodness in man, if he chooses to listen to God not
Merely for what He provides, as if God is a nebulous Specter
Favoring people who keep the Commandments of dull and capricious
Laws; for the Lord God deals not in labors of labor, or strictly
Measures of fleeting obedience; rather, He structures the world for
Purposes starkly opposed to the self or the beast in the quickly
Vanishing soul, as a choice of a good, and so gives us the chance to
Truly be virtuous, such as a creature is hardly a moral
Agent, instead it is likened to rivers and rain, that such a
Thing is obeying its nature, and thus it, alongside floral,
Earthy, and other examples, is referred to as “nature,” because it
Follows all it shall be forever; yet man is endowed in a better
Standard, as God isn’t good by a virtue, instead He is good as
Essence is, that God bears its distinctness, as good to its letter,
Thus to be good is to choose God, though as it stands, the entire
Purpose of choice is to give us the chance to be good, so we may be
Good, as it must be a choice, or we chain the ordeal of the good and
Evil to nature, a thing of no choice, and if God is, to say the
Least, good, what is endowed the potential of goodness is that of
Great imitation, creation to mimic the Lord God’s steadfast
Love in all things, and as such, we are fettered by freedom, a chosen
Thing in Creation inspired to walk by all others, to tread past
Nature to seek the divine, and to give us the chance to be good, though
Never as good as the Lord God, mirror the Perfect to lesser
Mimicry, statues of God in the garden, the breath of the wind in
Trees and the voice of the waves to be heard and we, like its possessor,
Name all Creation as though it is owned by us; that it is, given
Breath by the Lord God from His own Breath, and creating the voices
Over all voices; no breath of the trees nor the voice of the waves are enough to
Rival the breath of the man and the voice of the man, as our choices
Toward the Lord God grant us the only eternity here on
Earth, that even the cycles of Earth’s perpetuity spinning
Clouds, rain, seasons, and forces of nature, as vast and as perfect
They are, reflect an eternal procession, and since the beginning,
These are enduring, and show no dynamic apart from what God
Granted to them on their day of creation; so man is uniquely
Made, as eternity dwells in our making; as fire exists in
Bronze, the abilities God intertwined in our bodies obliquely
Manifest through our endeavors, the melodies crafts of Creation,
Borrowed emotions and metaphors forged in the spirit’s creative
Crucible, what any artist admits – the ideas of artists
Follow a strict genealogy, art is at once imitative,
Trite, and transcendent; arriving complete in the mind from elsewhere,
That it is mimicking what is in front of us, that it in part bears
Similar traits to our own genealogy shouldn’t surprise a
Reader of Moses, as mankind dies, in his death his art shares
This fate, rather in relevance than some form of a gruesome
End, a descent into She’ol, instead it retreats in disturbing
Swiftness to aether, and there it remains till a time when someone
Else is exploring his own ideations, and discovers a burning
Flight of his fancy, and though he expects it to come as his own, he
Fails to anticipate that he’s another its lineage captures,
Only a link in the chain of a greater enmity between the
Splendor of Right and seduction of Wrong, if either enraptures
That man, then it is fitting his death is reflective of that choice,
Since it is that opposition of righteous and wicked ideas
Which act as chariots in death that carry us forth in our judgment,
Then we depend on believing our many iniquities need us,
Warped by insistent belief that righteous and wicked decisions
Matter to nobody save for the Lord God, even if those we
Impact in these, our iniquities, ever condemn us, as though their
Stake in the sin is a reason to shrug off the burden, to mostly
Save us a hard conversation with those we have trespassed, though we
Hardly deserve to embody it, less of a state than possession,
Which reflects iniquity or good works seen by us elsewhere,
Thus it is clear that whether restored and repentant, or regression
Tarrying full reprobation, our death is a mirror in which our
State is imbued as a final decision, and Abaddon comes to
Bear us away, to become as a thread in the eyes of the Lord God,
Keeping the righteous or wicked before Him, and wretched the tongues who
Speaks in its countenance wicked appraisal, should his eternal reward be
Fires of tombs to consume all the flesh of his bones, and to perish
Mourning, lamenting, his death a despair, as no prayers suffice to
Change or redeem him, and likewise, praise the arrival and cherish
They of a righteous deliverance, that he of kindness and good faith
Seen in the eyes of the Lord God enters the kingdom proclaiming
That in his death is a permanent justice, a righteous engraving
Perfect and welcome; so should the Destroyer deliver us, framing
This unavoidable exit is only a terror if one’s life
Offers no good to rejoice in, and succor if God in His graceful
Countenance blesses us wholly with deeds and deserving allotments
Which we cooperate freely with, lest we are lacking, and the wasteful
Life we present to our Lord is a testament wherefore
Written, condemning us, closed as a letter to God of our trespass,
Then it befits us an Angel of Death to acquire our souls, should
Mankind wrongly assume it is prudent to languish unless asked
That he provide an account in his time, so with this in my mind, I
Wonder if Abaddon’s laughter describes in peculiar fashion
What this man born dead has endured or enacted in that life
Previous, should he return to an obstinate life of compassion,
Such as it were, or he lives in his sins, a propitious endearment
Toward a second installment of greater iniquities, part in
Abaddon’s darkly hysteric eruptions of laughter and part in
Where this revenant’s body began is enough to dishearten
Whom it concerns, as it seems to be more of a taunt from Death and
Basic deduction to safely conclude that this man born dead
Lived and departed, iniquities bound to his body, and that it
Dragged him to She’ol, and leaven of wickedness, were he the warm bread
Sacrificed there in the Temple of firstfruits, which is forever
Claimed by a Sadducee’s foolish attempt to regard God like His
Favor’s mechanics are somehow divorced of His essence, so when some
Vague and predictable terror, its prophecy found in the priceless
Words of the Prophets, and even a practice by King Antiochus,
What desolation befalls in its time as the sacrifice that ought
Never to stand in the Holiest Place is in there, and of what has
Passed to our fathers, indeed generations and afterward that taught
What in the stars are the signs of the days as foretold to us those days
Long gone, those of the first of our fathers, are the fragments of mercies
Paired with the gentlest purchased in man’s hearts, conscience and reason,
That if we were to be good, then what are the ends, to endure these
Labors of flesh, to be nothing – it means to belong, that when I
Perish, and Abraham comes to embrace me, and from the canal I
Passed through when born, visions of burials follow, forever:
That each man is appointed his death, that each man shall die.
the Earth split open • toward the Jordan
evading Roman patrols • Israel again in captivity
why God chooses the lesser • why man must die