-----------/When Doves Cry; Jesus' Thoughts Upon Seeing The Empty Temple Area At Night (The Tables Set Up For Bartering, Unattended Cages of Doves Cooing, Signs Designating Currency Exchange Rates and Hours Of Operation, Etc)
Its hard to imagine that so much time has passed
how much has changed
when
seemingly only a few moments have elapsed
when darkness reigned
and nothingness – but the spirit hovering over waters
and with wisdom man nothing yet but a conception
and Israel chosen as a privilege
(a beacon of hope on earth brought forth)
and in a moment floods in wrath destroyed rebellion
a dove charged with conditional emancipation
to share of any good news spoken throughout the land
the olive branch was proof of her loyalty
(and of new beginnings realized)
honoring her promise, setting her free
a legacy cemented in heaven’s lore with true symbolism....dependable
innocent, gentle, pure, lovely....
and since....a temple was built, sacrificial ordinances instituted
for us Jewish people
to atone for our wrongs in this world and enable peace
with a Creator full of great expectations
and war upon war evidenced His dexterity in battle
foe upon felled foe substantiated Jacob’s preeminence
and choice provisions of the land bequeathed
without any trite currency, or swindling,
or bargaining, only love and grace undeservedly
but happily bestowed
before a second temple was built and intimacy
between God and Israel fostered again
tonight
the moon pours forth creamy milk streams of lambent light
casting tall silhouettes before those who have come to
pay respects for the annals of a people forever pressed
but never crushed
in silence, and solemn but joyous tears….for all those
recently passed and those only entrusted to memory
like Noah, like Moses, like Jonah, like Isaac
and for the plight of all of us still alive yet essentially squelched
under a pagan oligarchy sympathetic yet blasé
to the importance of true worship;
yet harsh and cruel, and petulant in tax season
but in its wake, past the shadows it reveals mangled and anguished shrills
from doves trapped in cages, cords around their beaks
with sullen eyes
doleful about what our people have become, and the inability
like their ancestors, to witness a righteous people set apart
or exude any admirable qualities full of dignity, not filth and squalor
not innocent but guilty, not gentle but jaded and cynical, impure, unlovely
....loose change littered across the floor
worn signs directing traffic to a menagerie of wicked services
treacherously serving a god of mammon
provided to a nation who has truly lost their way
and truly succumbed to mental tyranny
and literally unable to esteem any higher power
other than themselves
And all I can do is just sit for a moment
wistful
for a brief jaunt back on the Ark
just to hold the olive branch that once brought promise
now turned into decadence
---------------Mark 11:11-17
Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard it. Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers."
