(Assyrian) Acrimony

And the LORD God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant.


-------------/Acrimony: The Thoughts of Jonah Under the Plant


When enemies sing, it deafens the ears
and when they dance, it urges disconsolation
wrangling within: whether hatred or resignation
retaliation and murder or just callous and stoic rejection
of their bitter memories even if it means
apathy as they starve
because you categorically reject everything they stand for
the oppression dealt against foreigners
(eyes gouged, fingers and noses torn and ears ripped off;
men burnt alive)
the merciless rape of women, torture of children
and the mockery of your Jewish culture
the attempt at erasing your very identity
in a swift profligate act of condescension that only an arrogant
haughty, hegemonic, grotesque, barbaric people could conceive of
because sometimes you simply tire of playing the victim all the time
when will unjust men finally be summoned before righteous justice
and doled out extreme, fitting retribution for all the harm they caused
cultures irrevocably scarred (or forgotten)
at night under the luminescent glow of the moon
and the cool winds at your back
you pray the sound of their teeth grinding
under the whips of a nation more ruthless
would wake you in the morning,
or that their ashes would cover you like a blanket
before you slept
your bedroom lit by the conflagration of their homes, crops and cattle
these things comfort you
like a plant sent from God providing shade from the summer sun
while they singed
like a ruling from a judge exacting vengeance for your grief
and your angst would leave you
as you rested
in the glory of a wicked adversary felled



(you would flee from God at just the thought of letting them live)


--------------Jonah 4
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the LORD, and said, "Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” Then the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. And the LORD God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah's head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live.” Then God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "It is right for me to be angry, even to death!" But the LORD said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?"