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.