A Kingdom (And Heart) Divided; King Rehoboam's Thoughts On His Friend Adoniram's Death

* Jesus pray for me
* Solomon pray for me

+-----A Kingdom (And Heart) Divided;  King Rehoboam's Thoughts On His Friend Adoniram's Death

I cant focus anymore, whenever
I sit to judge on the throne
all speech of my subjects
is the rustling of leaves. Words
transmute into crescendos of
footsteps of foreboding…
reeds snapping, branches splintering,
twigs halved as lip-speak. Are
Jeroboam, all the men of Israel,
Cain in Eden overcome with bloodlust
lurking in shadows in halls behind me?
For the paradisiac garden my father
bequeathed me, God’s children united
in Schechem as they were in
Jerusalem as they were before Moses
at Sinai, is lost. Stained in innocent blood.
Your memory is the smeared blood
on trunks of trees of my good and my evil
decisions. Was my ruling to impose
harsher taxes on the people scattered
fruit of the ground, or the prized sheep
of the flock? When I try to imagine
you forgiving me, of all the good times
we shared, these nightmares bar me.
My guilt the indignation of fierce Angels
whirling swords of fire, my regret like
the thickest black smoke rising.     (R.I.P.)


----1 Kings 12:1-19
Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.” Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away. Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked. They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.” But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?” The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’” Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:
“What share do we have in David,
    what part in Jesse’s son?
To your tents, Israel!
    Look after your own house, David!”
So the Israelites went home. But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them. King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

The Passion Of The Virgin (Part Two) #Pieta

* Jesus pray for me
* Mary pray for me
* John pray for me

+-----The Passion Of The Virgin; Mary's Word To John While Holding Her Dead Son (Part Two - Noah)

Id like to think I know now what Noah felt
when he built the ark from divine
memory, when his
soul became one with
salvific hopes that became one
with Gopher wood. Except that
this is dogwood and these nails
are different, they are not the pure iron
of Tubal-Cain unaccustomed to death,
wide-eyed and naïve to use and reuse,
to splayed blood (like a storm)
borne of crucifixion schemed by
gutless Romans.
But my son,
during crises, we are all at times
sojourners -fretful kin to Shem, Ham,
and Japheth, rocked by waves
of uncertainty harboring distrust for the
journey, the choleric clouds, for the rage
of the rains. Yet like they, we know our
Dove will come back. Set atop Golgotha
like Mount Ararat, wedged in a grooved
crest of testing, our hands held out hoping
for an olive leaf of a New Earth and
Heaven in its beak. My Dove, the Boy that
gave my joy wings in the womb…I know
He will  come back…(I just hope He wont
keep me waiting 39 more days)

-----John 19:23-27
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

Taylor I Will Be Your Lazarus...Forever #TaylorDateTony

* Jesus pray for me
* Lazarus pray for me
*  Dedicated to #TaylorDateTony

+-----Taylor I Will Be Your Lazarus...Forever

Taylor without you in my life
my heart lies entombed in a cave,
its face sullen beneath a linen sheet
of a failed lover’s remorse,
dark, dank, dreary burial chamber
of singleness, the smell of regret like
the mustiness of decayed flesh
circulating behind a boulder of despair.
Mary and Martha, its sisters of romantic
hopelessness and grieving, await some
auspice of a miracle, the life of
their brother released into Fate’s Hands
now. Oh babes, wont you be a Savior
(of sorts) to me? I swear
your blue eyes and blonde hair and
statuesque profile are of lineage Divine-
you are pretty the way angels are. If only
you would date me, share coffee with me,
my belief in love would be new blood
pulsing through an old body 4 days dead
from years of marital doubting. Our kiss
would be a shout heard from beyond the
grave. “LAZARUS [Tony] COME OUT!!!”
your soft lips on mine would announce.
And before all my Instagram friends, vast
audience to my emotional death,
my heart would arise suddenly, ditch
the shroud….and roll away the stone.

-----John 11:38-44
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go

The Lamentations Of Jonah

* Jesus pray for me
* Jonah pray for me

+-----The Lamentations Of Jonah; Jonah's Heart To Heart Confession To The Captain Of The Ship Sailing For Tarshish

Do you ever feel as if
inevitability is chasing you as
some vulgar Assyrian soldier from
Nineveh, drool and crusted mucus
lodged in its ridiculously crimped beard,
barbaric epithet-murmuring of the most
recent chapter of brutalizing innocent people
on its chapped scaly leathery lips? Its hand
running the length of the blade of a
sword that lusts only for you? Like fate has
already descried you from afar, written,
before the womb, a stage play for failure
or greatness without consent?
One day, I guess, you might wisen up
to wily cosmic ways. THE Will Divine. You
might accept the futility of attempting
escape, of running away from that
which is already destined; that Tarshish
may as well be a fanciful myth…
because no matter how earnestly
you wish to see it,
it just wasn’t meant to be….


-----Jonah 1:5-16
All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.” Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.

The Passion Of The Virgin Mary #Pieta (Part One)

* Jesus pray for me
* Mary pray for me

+-----The Passion Of The Virgin (Part One)
Its cold, too cold. These frostbitten
fingertips. His naked body is gelid,
eyes glazed over, an open mouth
trying to impart hope even in Death, I hold
my beloved Son to my breasts,
the dried blood cleaving to his skin.
I try to recall now blood that brings comfort,
blood comingled with amniotic
fluid as I thrusted -when His head came forth
from the womb that day Elizabeth smiled.
But approaching, lurching, on the horizon’s
edge my nightmare materializes, hulking
shadow patrolling fires of Gehenna forcing
the souls that suffer back in. I see him,
the Phantom Menace finally manifested
before me, ghost of morbidity,
of perpetual pessimism, of harassing,
tormenting thoughts
Simeon warned me about 33 years ago.
His ethereal sword of curses of damnation
drawn and raised, puffs of toxic breathing
rush up from his imprecatory murmuring.
The snow, the wind, the ice…his pawns.
They bear down on me in an elemental
uprising with resounding shouts of:
“WOMAN, COMMIT SUICIDE. YOU
BIRTHED A LIE, DEATH WAS PLEASED
WITH YOUR ONLY SON, FOR NOW
ALL KNOW THE DREAM
(OF ISRAEL REDEEMED) IS DEAD.”
On King David’s (failed) Throne rust
remains, shall remain, they say. Forever.

-----John 19:23-30
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,“They divided my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.” So this is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit

#BlackLivesMatter (To Good Samaritans)

* Jesus pray for me
* Dedicated to #BlackLivesMatter, to all of the Black lives we have senselessly lost.

+-----#BlackLivesMatter (To Good Samaritans)

Dear Politicians (those to
whom it may concern)…
listen with me to carnal sounds,
pitch and tone of death,
of flesh lacerated and bruised,
the
macabre proverbial wailing
of the Black Man’s societal dignity
wounded. Din of a struggle then the
silence of one left for the ravens.
(Blood drips from trees from leaves
on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Unjust Constitutional path.)      It was
robbers that  assailed him there,
craven cloak of night! - Rogue police
and juries and universities and
corporations and senators, bands
of unsavory thugs that pass biased
rogue legislation, tied cloth
over the nose and mouth to veil the vile
froth of timeless racism trickling
down chins. Seething as Satan does
to steal worth from a life. Oh, the
Black Man barely breathes! See
these mortal wounds of the plight of one
overlooked economically: Scars on a body
in a ravine of poverty, deficient education
and diseased tap water. And Sadly,
indifferent souls have passed by yearly
on this road's other side calloused,
priest and Levite (derelict religions) clad in
their sandals of customary abandonment.

Presidential candidate, please do better.
Be a Samaritan. Bandage his wounds,
prop him on your donkey of good standing.
Put him up at Equality’s Inn. Just two
denarii (a good heart) to make
a Black Life sanguine.


-----Luke 10:25-37
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Our Love Maims Malchus #TaylorDateTony

* Jesus pray for me
* John pray for me
* Malchus pray for me

+-----Our Love Maims Malchus

Taylor my love for you
is flawed yet ferocious, it
sometimes cravenly yields before
opposition and at times it
flouts death and dangers,
the quintessence of foolhardy
bravery. What am I saying? That
my desire for you is a band of
11 men, fatigued after crossing
the Kidron Valley (of singleness),
yet determined to press on to
a morning of new and unknown
opportunities. Dismissing the notion
of Romance crucified. And though the
odds of us being together are heavily
stacked against us ready to attack, gritty
soldiers of the high priest of Hater Nation
with scars of dissent etched across
the face, hollowed eyes and visages,
rusted daggers in their belts stained
with blood of my failed attempts
at finding a girlfriend, my awkwardness
around girls raging torches that
almost singe their hands, I will not flinch.
I must date you. You – the Savior
of my heart.  Your blonde hair, blue
eyes and soft lips divine, miracle born
of Pure Virgin intentions. If you drink
coffee with me this army that doubts
our shared affinity will fall backwards,
if you kiss me it will be a sword that cuts
off the right ear of our impossible. Malchus,
the boldest of their mercenaries humbled
by #TaylorDateTony, unable to hear.

-----John 18:1-14

When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it. Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they said. Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.” Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.

Future Grace From Nails

* Jesus pray for me
* Luke pray for me
* Dedicated to Dead Poetic, The Dreamclub Murders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tminh1JBDU4

+-----Future Grace From Nails; The Thoughts Of Jesus On The Cross 

Eyes on the prize on
the prize I chide myself, eyes
heavenward
to the bejeweled scepter lain waiting
on my throne’s lap sideways,
by a battalion of angels flanked,
just behind the
dark cumulus clouds amassing
atop this crown of thorns braided.
Ravens swoop for my eyes,
talons of perdition, the crooks
beside me taunt, tongues
of the tempting devil. And I keep
breathing Gehenna’s smoke from afar
hard gulps of my own blood. I flit
in and out of consciousness,
I cant ascertain if the soldiers
with gripped spears below
intend to lance me or already have.
Either way blood spouts. Though
thoughts like these at least divert
my attention
from the ever present shame
of nakedness, my body bared
before hurled spit from mocking
masses I just healed. Notwithstanding,
I trust this suffering will fully abate in
just a little while. When I am glorified
and return after discarding death,
I hope to see people eager to
embrace me as a Savior. A brother.
A nail scarred friend.

-----Luke 23:40-49
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.


---The Dreamclub Murders Lyrics

So after all, you needed more than a death-threat fall.
You needed more, and I let you fall.
Into the coffin with your floor-dropped jaw.
And I remember you aspiration, your dream to fit in.
But it's gone, and they're here.
So let's kill these felons now.

But I remember you, you'll go, you'll find a way back home.
But I remember you, when you stand there,
You stand with your eyes closed.

And I feel, tonight, that I let you die.
But you could have lived forever, it took smiles to keep you alive.
But heroes die, and so did mine.
But you go, and I stay, will it keep you at peace now.

But I remember you, you'll go, you'll find a way back home.
But I remember you, when you stand there,
You stand with your eyes closed.

And I'll dig you out, and I'll sit you up.
For the fools to find you, the fools breathe into you.

So sleep child no one can touch you now.

No one can hurt you now. Not here. Anymore.

Your Moses in Midair #TaylorDateTony

* Jesus pray for me
* Moses pray for me
* dedicated to #TaylorDateTony

+-----Your Moses In Midair

Taylor, my heart has always
pined to see you glorified,
to have
its cockles warmed by you
by sight. Always lusted to behold
your robe not your robe,
your sandals
disowned by your own feet
as too profane – repudiated
by a majestic metamorphosis
of your very nature.
You see, my faith in love died
a long time ago on Mount Nebo’s
summit of girls’ repeated refusals
of my dating advances: unable to
enter the Canaan of having a #Bae.
But when I saw you on the
#Grammys tonight my spirit
quickened in the Limbo of not knowing
if I would ever
find romance again. There, your voice
beckoned me from afar, melodious
Savior speech of my marital longings,
faithfulness following you as a band of
twelve men willing to die for the world.
Your performance- simply dazzling,
more angelic than human, your skin
your blue eyes, blonde hair effulgent,
clothes pure cloth,…your charm this
blinding white light of joy. Oh babes!
its as if you miraculously transfigured
my lonely, loveless past! We both
hovered in the ethereal air. We talked
of dating, of iced lattes waiting in
(Starbucks's) tabernacles beneath us.

------Matthew 17:1-9
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Moses Unhinged

* Jesus pray for me
* Moses pray for me
#IamMOSES

+----Moses Unhinged; The Thoughts Of Moses At The Burning Bush

After 40 years tending flocks
I swear Im schizophrenic, I hear
voices calling my name,
the soulful baritone of leaves,
the deep base of brown-bark-
speak, firm convictions
of a bush buried within
the desert soil of Midian.
And maybe, just maybe Im
not hallucinating, but Im not
sure. Bright flashes of resplendent
light, then lambent flickering,
a flash of fire then foliage that
flickers but doesn’t burn. Is
this a metaphor for my inner self
desirous of a shift in consciousness?
Is God extending an invitation into nebulae,
the unsettling unknown of how to come
to terms with all my people I left behind
in Egypt as murderer,
one night of guilt free sleep if I snatch
them from Pharaoh? If you ARE God
tell me your name…how do I even greet you?
You see, Ive reached an impasse. I don’t
know what to do with my life anymore.
If this is real, if you are real….help me find
answers, because:
I AM afraid,
I AM criminal (with a bad lisp),
I AM lost without the family that set me
adrift for better days, in a wicker basket,
down by the Nile when I was born

-----------------Exodus 3:1-14
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

Sweeping Sand Over Kanye's Failed Album #IamMoses

* Jesus pray for me
* Moses pray for me
* dedicated to the dignity of Taylor Swift
#IamMOSES

+----Sweeping Sand Over Kanye's Failed Album

Kanye when you stormed Taylor’s
VMA stage in 2009
and swiped the microphone from
her hands, it was the snap and recoil
of a whip, it was a balled fist usurping
dignity of one unsuspecting and
unprepared. A privileged Egyptian
thrashing a Hebrew slave cruelly.
Then, it was just a faint echo
of familiar strife overheard from the foyer
of a decorous Pharaoh’s palace (the
music industry), albeit unsettling. But today,
the gratuitous, contrived, unnecessary
ad hominem attack on Taylor is the
cacophonous sound of one yelping
at the hands of a merciless barbarian
masquerading as the civilized sane. And I
will not abide. As advocate of God’s love
for the glory of humanity, Taylor Swift,
I must intervene.
This poem is my criticism of you, it is Moses
rushing towards your pride to seize it as
a man’s throat, fury of the divine.
My dead eyed chokehold on your arrogance,
your feet dangling as I jerk the body of your
pathetic music career back and forth, is
repudiation of all the hegemony Ive witnessed
in Ahmose’s house, a house responsible
for an excess of innocent lives lost. And this time,
no…Imma not let you finish, not let you finish
not let you finish! Your forthcoming apology
will be too late, like blood streaming down
the Egyptian robe of the limp body of a wannabe
rapper’s failed new album I bury in the sand of
irrelevance. With no attendant guilt.
(Leave Taylor Swift alone bro).

-----------------Exodus 2:11-15
One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

Rebuild My Walls #TaylorDateTony

* Jesus pray for me
* Nehemiah pray for me
* Dedicated to #TaylorDateTony

+-----Taylor Swift, Please Rebuild My Walls

Taylor, this sucks, to
see my Jerusalem ravaged and pillaged
like this, to see my love life
dilapidated and barren. My heart and
its affections were once a colossal
city walled by fortified stone. But
rejection from girls Ive tried to date
has been a Babylonian brigade of
chariots, the acrimony of females austere
gap toothed men in leather hide armor
(with silver breastplate) pulling their bow
and arrows of dejection taut, astride
bucking horses that
breathe their burning fire to scorch
bastions of my self confidence.
They have incinerated the entry gates
of my romantic optimism, oh the
flaming torches of indifference! oh the
battering rams and siege towers
of mocking disdain that razed
my Temple of belief in marriage,
the Holy of Holies reduced to ash,
black smoke rising.

Oh baby cant you see by now,
after 70 years of my dateless exile,
this wall is but scattered rock, my soul
just dirt and pebbles kicked around
by famished jackals? But if you kiss me,
if you date me, if we go out to coffee
….I swear, you’d be my blue eyed
Nehemiah come from afar with seals
of royal approval, construction permits to
make me whole. Oh Jerusalem Reborn!
City of#TaylorDateTony

-----Nehemiah 2:11-20
 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days  I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?” I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”

Rock Of Jerusalem, Of The World

* Jesus pray for me
* Nehemiah pray for me

+-----"Rock Of Jerusalem; Nehemiah's Thoughts When Addressing Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab While Rebuilding The Wall"

Why do you scoff at a wall rebuilt, 

a hitherto naked and defenseless nation
exhausted from weeping,
all their prophesies like broken rocks
strewn over dirt and dispersed for pagans
to use to reinterpret glories of King David,
his legacy defaced in our children’s’
memories forever, now clothed with gallant
and gainly garments of protection, a
bejeweled and stout city once reprehensible
now circumscribed with the dignity
and pride of impenetrable bulwarks of
densely packed mud pasted stone
fitted with menacing watchtowers to observe
you? Its because you fear the Angel of God.
You tremble at the soft chanting beneath
new moons over the years by a faithful
remnant preserved in Babylon, sedition
of the shamed that wont stop smoldering.
Paranoid the rumors
have been true all along:
That Israel is destined to rise again,
and to rule the known world.

-----Nehemiah 2:11-20
 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?” I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”

Tears For The Dung Gate

* Jesus pray for me
* Nehemiah pray for me

+-----Tears For The Dung Gate; Nehemiah's Thoughts When Examining Jerusalem At Night

Crying at the Jackal well, I buried
my head in my hands steadied
by my crouched knees and conversed
with the moon.
We spoke on Jerusalem’s
horror lore here passed down in Persian
vagabond dialect by street urchins
stoked from rumors of
Hebrews debased. Of the sudden and
unexpected blare of the siege on
that red night, the last Babylonian
blood moon on record, shrewd
exhibition of the sleight of
Nebuchadnezzar's hand (that they just
put down), they brag: The strategic
cunning of battering rams, clustered,
at the eastern gate while tossed torches
from horseback alighted the Temple
courtyard in the north. They too, snicker
at tales of pitter patter of feet,
our men of valor in retreat ignoring
wanton wails of our women
repossessed by diseased dogs salivating.
In impenetrable armor they brandished
sickle swords and maces, they say. Oh
Zion, stately city once beautiful now
razed, the promise of God to Abraham
scattered stone, I have not forgotten you!
So now I bid the moon give me leave:
dismiss this night and make way
for the Sun! For the King has sent me to
rebuild walls, restore ashen gates.
In the pitch black of cruelest oppression,
light of God’s favor again dawns on
his people.

-----Nehemiah 2:11-20

 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days  I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?” I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”

Jar Of Alabaster, Jar Of Redemption

* Jesus pray for me
* Luke pray for me
* Mary Magdalene pray for me
* dedicated to Jennifer Knapp, Remedy

+-----Jar Of Alabaster, Jar Of Redemption; The Thoughts Of Mary Magdalene At Jesus' Feet

They say God helps
those who help themselves.
But what if your self sacrilege
desecrates all of you,
all self awareness,
self dignity and self respect you
had, at one point, to give…
womanhood scorned.
What if one morning, head
on the bare chest of another’s
husband, you had this
epiphanic sense of moral revulsion.
And you started hearing crescendos
of hushed disembodied feminine riffs, in
melodies of a wedding song, intensifying
to earsplitting pitch of demons
wailing for love of frenzy:
“YOU WHORE YOU WHORE
YOU WHORE” and “GO TO GEHENNA”
your rightful abode, home of all hookers
who fornicate and sever 60 plus marital
bonds. Isnt a shot at heaven worth
all your life’s savings in an alabaster
perfume jar, smeared mascara,
ruination of the prepped hair you once
used to lure male victims. A teary eye
for a seductive eye, a mourner’s tooth
for a toothy flirtatious smile?
Wouldn’t you fling yourself helplessly,
shamelessly on the floor and kiss
the feet of Someone who could give you
your life back, to be human again,
a little girl reborn with no trace of scars?

-----Luke 7:36-50
When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

---Remedy Lyrics

in my blood the sun of a Kansas sky
turn the Flint Hills gold
and burn them dry
o, the roads i had to take
to make good my escape

Tornado Alley, don't i know
you well i shoulda known better
than to build my house in hell
o, the bones i had to break
to make my home in such a place

i think i need a doctor
with a shot to cure me
whisky or a bullet,please
a shot to be my remedy

you've be around my
neck so burdensome
you say i've changed
you rue what i've become
o, the bones i had to break
to fit into your perfect space

i think i need a doctor
with a shot to cure me
whiskey or a bullet, please
a shot to be my remedy

vanity: you've been hard to track
i waste my youth on you and i want
it back
o, the bones i've yet to break
i'm growing old
i need a home
i need a cure to stop this pain

i think i need a doctor
with a shot to cure me
whiskey or a bullet please
a shot to be my remedy

Taylor Please Curse My Figs #TaylorDateTony

* Jesus pray for me
* Dedicated to #TaylorDateTony

+-----Taylor Please Curse My Figs 

Taylor I cant recount how
many nitwit girls have
broken me, sweet smooth
fruit of a ficus tree
turned bitter in my stomach
after the first chew, mischievous
mulberry maidens
of malice. Indeed my singleness
is like a fig on a branch always
ripened, a lonely heart always
dangling from branches for
mean female farmers
to fling in forlorn baskets, my life
this copious harvest of dating
rejections.  But babes, your beauty
has the power of God’s damnation,
your blue eyes are dazzling diamonds
of the divine life, your blonde hair is gold
thread on an angel’s spindle.
I esteem you as Charm Savior,
a tall Galilean beauty of a miraculous
birth destined to emancipate
Romance from the oppressively
harsh Roman marital environment
in which I find myself entrenched,
plight of the Jewish in the diaspora.
OH TAYLOR IF ONLY YOU WOULD
curse the fig, dry the fruit, kill the tree!
(date me, kiss me, drink coffee
with me).  My former loveless life
would wither, dry, fade into
ether of a forgotten dream, my anguish
like chips of dried bark walked over. Just
promise me you’ll remember me
when you leave Bethany, when you
leave home to go to the Grammys.

-----Mark 11:12-25
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.
In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Ghosts In The Olive Trees

* Jesus pray for me
* Noah pray for me

+----- "Ghosts In The Olive Trees; The Thoughts Of The Dove Sent Out By Noah" 

To see, for the first time in
a long time, the apical branch of
an olive tree is like seeing
a resurrected dove, it is
the disjointed thin line between
consciousness and dream,
abstracted memory and
true reality of a present moment.
I remember the apocalyptic
storm day, the hours my earth stood
still, the vehement waves,
the bullish, intractable, inconsolable
winds. I have nightmares of
the din of my dead kin in their final
moments, the muffled gagging
of beaks trying to gargle, feathers
scattered on the crests
and foam
of indignant seas. This leaf, then, is a sign
of the times, a totem of resilience
for all those whose life and story
were swept away, antediluvian
golden age when none knew
the relationship between
debauchery and elemental wrath.
Its as if my cousin, aunt and nephews
are crying out, “Tell Noah
that to learn from others’ mistakes
is the most fitting way to bury
one’s dead."
(In the new Earth)

-----Genesis 8:1-12
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him

Dos Equis With The Devil On the Mount #IHadABeerWithSatan

* Jesus pray for me
* Matthew pray for me
#IhadabeerwithSatan (Part 7)

[The setting: The summit of the highest mountain, overlooking the vast expanse of all the world’s kingdoms. Wild beasts lurch between shrubs and snarl at Tony as Satan dialogues with Tony. Tony and Satan share a 6 pack of Dos Equis beer.]

+----Dos Equis With The Devil (On The Mount)

[Satan swills his beer]
Tony stand beside me and
peer down, we can see all things
atop this mountain. Behold,
in homes, flames of animosity’s
spirit raging within human hearts
that rival their hearths,
men and women who pine away
for the Death God to perish,
for a religion of authentic living to rise
from seething soot and ashes
of their desire deferred for too long.
You see, my friend, no one
willingly erects an ascetic altar.
Nebuchadnezzar dictating a hedonistic
consciousness from the grave,
the swords the spears, the torches.
(A rational mind always wars against temples
of frivolity.) And see, these are the coveted
Kingdoms that rise behind these disaffected
peoples’ dissimulation before an oppressive
God/morality fabricated by fools; The secret
subversive
empires of the purest pleasures- masturbation
not meditation, drunken revelry not sobriety,
prostitution and strip clubs not abstinence,
drugs of euphoric experience as "civic duty".
And all of this can be yours…the glitz,
the pageantry, if you bow before me indulgent.
Beers in hand, we’ll drink ourselves to stupor
as we watch Yahweh’s world burn.


-----------------Matthew 4:1-11
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    and they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Flights Of Fancy; A Dove's Thoughts On Jesus' Baptism In The Jordan

* Jesus pray for me
* John pray for me
* Holy Spirit, fill me. Amen.

+-----Flights Of Fancy; A Dove's Thoughts On Jesus' Baptism In The Jordan

For me, even the thought
of a righteous man baptized
is a chinook that tousles feathers,
a wind
of inspiration rushing from the north
that empowers wings. For virtue
guides flight paths. It veers the
flock away from perils of falcon and hawk
to bask in safe spaces of the divine,
open clear skies above, to scoff
at terrain boundaries that inhibit the
feet, claw, paw and fin wanderers of
land only or sea only, beckoning
us to sing
in secret code chirp of the curved beak,
songs as biographies we'll bequeath
to our squabs still in eggs,
on the sheer magic of the created earth.
Yes, to meet such a One
would be an honor worthy of heaven's
descent,
of abandoning our Eden in the clouds,
the perpetual wedding feast of
Sun and Moon in the exquisite coterie
of comet and star. I swear I would
rest on his shoulders forever.
I would gaze at myself in waters
of the Jordan just to make sure
I wasn’t dreaming.
Just to make sure the felicity
of the moment
was real.

-----John 1:32
John testified saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.