Book of the Father
1Abraham is with us again. Yeah Abraham, with your God and your son and your rough bone knife. Yeah Abraham, Geographic cover boy, father of the three faiths, with your Belfast and your Beirut and your Promised Land. 2Yeah Abram to Abraham, patriarch with an extra ha dropped in your name. Yeah God's laughter. Yeah Sarah's laughter. Yeah Sarai to Sarah, faux sister to wife. Yeah primal fucking. 3Yeah Abraham, with your needling questions of the Lord. Yeah Abraham, with the questions and questions for Lot, but none for Isaac. Yeah knife man. Yeah Abraham, hearing God's voice and turning a murderous eye to a child. Yeah paranoid schizophrenia. 4Yeah Abraham, begetting and setting off begetting. Yeah generations of Abraham. Yeah Ibrahim to Ishmael, Abraham to Isaac. Yeah covenant and submission. 5Yeah contradictions, one true faith and one true faith. Yeah Abraham, ubiquitous Abraham, everywhere always. In the tank with Ariel Sharon,in the studio with Jerry Falwell, in the cockpit with Mohammed Atta. Yeah Abraham and the small dark fear. Yeah Sodom. Yeah Babel. Yeah down low. 6Yeah Abraham and your literal origins. The father is high. Yeah the father is high. Yeah Abraham, just like a father, just like a father with a knife. Yeah patriarch, making us all we are. Yeah Abraham. yeah heavenly father. Yeah testing, loving God. 7Yeah.
Delilah cried. Yeah Delilah
with your hair and your tits and your wine-stained
tongue. Yeah Delilah, sellout centerfold,
mired in your Sorek wadi with a longhair
Nazirite. Oh delicate Delilah,
de-lilah, not a lilac, not alike. Not like the saffron grinders,
the linen pounders. Not like the pinch-cheeked sisters
lingering by unsold sacks of lentils.
Yeah Delilah with your wheeling and dealing and wheedling.
Yeah Delilah with your pockets
full of bowstrings and new rope and scissors. Hey
Delilah, the hair's the thing--that mass of
unkempt follicle growth. Yeah rip it out. Mutter
Mata Hari's merci monsieur.
Christine,
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have a good ear for lyrical/poetic words. Delilah is a lovely word to read and say out loud, "saffron grinders" is a great word pair, along with "Sorek wadi" and the phrase "wine-stained tongue". You actually say "hair" three times ("the hair's the thing", "longhair", and "with your hair") in this short piece; if you continued to build off this, that may be something to ride with. The phrase "mass of unkempt follicle growth" really distracted me. Not only does it contain a multitude of opposing, stressed, consonant sounds (m, f, l, g, th) that slow down the tongue, but the phrase itself sounds too trying. Overall, you have a good hold on language and are well able to use another piece to lead into your own words and images.