Putrid

---------------------[The Stove/ The Thoughts Of Ezekiel As He Baked the Barley Cakes]


Back in Jerusalem they used to tell me stories
(merrily)
of David dancing
[*Ezekiel throws another piece of wood under the stove*]
and how ignoble and irascible the Philistines were
...until the thunderous collapse of Goliath
of Samuel and Saul's shared contempt; and David's perfunctory evasion
of the spear thrown at his head
musing on Solomon and his bevy of women
their tacky idols in our pristine temple
but now
there is no more dancing, or jest or de facto historian
Babylon has come, and soon will return
some people grieve, most are inexorable
their sins persist oblivious that the moon
scowls at us at night, turns red
and that behind the tabernacle God surreptitiously sneaks away
the overbearing sun mocks us and that birds fly by
too ashamed to perch nearby
wolves encompass us, stayed only by our captor’s spears
for this I weep routinely
Intermingling my tears with
wheat, and barley,
and beans, and lentiles,
and millet...
as the wind carries the rising smoke towards Jerusalem
we barely have enough to eat here...
but I toss cow's dung upon cow's dung with my cake
to underscore my bitter disgust
at my people/ at my fate
(as the pungent smell continually stings my eyes)



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Ezekiel 4:9-17
Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink. And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight. And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them. Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment: That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.