Moab

Cherry

By Ewan

Fri, 14 Apr 2017
  • 1937 reads
5 comments
 

 

The older daughter had a son,

foul-fathered on her,

and she named him Moab.

 

The father was her father

“Our father who art in heaven

swallowed be thy name”:

Lot, his salt-pillar wife

insufficient for his needs.

 

And the Moabites? They grew like weeds

from this most unpromising of seeds.

 

The altar of Chemosh

Solomon’s work,

much wisdom in that,

some said, whilst enjoying rites

and rights for and with Nebu,

no relation of Chadnezzar

but perhaps the consort

of Ba’al Peor.

 

It is in the Numbers,

it is in the Book,

it is in the Torah:

weep, read, look.

 

Now the new sons of Noah,

in the false-promised land,

stand against their own Philistines.

 

They look for the New Megiddo

for floods, for the last trump,

louder than the horn of Joshua

and the wall not yet built

to fall outward not inward.

 

Yet this time Goliath,

as well name him Moab,

is on the side of alt-right

and the sling-shot shepherds

hide in the White Mountains.

 

 

 

Certificate U
Poem
Days Like These
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Ed Crane on

 

 

Submitted by Ewan on

Well, there are a selection of Biblical characters and events with which, if you were inclined to do so, you could draw parallels with events and personalities in our days. I have conflated a 1000 or 2 years of biblical history to create the poem, but muddled?

Hmm... Moab was the son of Lot by his own daughter (Genesis 19:37) the Moabites as a tribe/nation were the sons (descendents of) Moab. The Altar of Chemosh was rumoured to have been built by Solomon and there are references to sexual rituals connected to it and the Heresy of Peor. These events are referred to in Numbers. Much of the OT is taken up with religious and patriotic wars between the Israelites and others.

"It is in the Numbers" etc is where the poem hinges. After that there are mixed and non- contemporaneous biblical references. The False-Promised Land is the USA, I have no doubt the Republicans/Fundamentalists see themselves as the new chosen people and Islam as their Philistines/Canaanites/Moabites et cetera. You probably know that Megiddo is equated by some with the site of Armageddon referred to in Revelation.

Joshua's horn was equated by translators of the old scriptures with a trumpet. The last trump is another reference to Revelation. Joshua blew his horn and the walls of Jericho fell down. Walls are much in the news lately. Even doubters amongst the Trump faithful must hope that the Mexican Wall falls outwards and not inwards (metaphorically speaking)

I should have thought it was obvious that MOAB would equate to a giant, and that the shepherd's sling more equates to the terrorists in their caves.

There we are, you can't beat dissecting a poem to take the joy out of it.

Yes, Mr Trump's foreign policy, whatever it is today and whatever it will be tomorrow, appears very dangerous to me.

Thank you for reading and commenting.

Ewan

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

 

 

Submitted by Ewan on

couldn't get back to you yesterday. I was going to say that the "jumping around" in the second half of the poem is definitely supposed to represent the gadfly impermanence of Trump's policies, particularly with regard to international affairs. Dangerous times indeed.

Ewan

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

smiley