the great locusts have eaten;
We’ve eaten all the corn we’d saved for seed
and there are no animals left to bleed
upon our stone altars trying to appease
the storm gods or whoever’s there to hear–
who might remove the flies, return the bees,
the oil and wine, the fattened flock to shear.
Or will they have us whither, have us starve,
greet death without valor, dried up, unhurt
but empty, with swordless hands forced to carve
existence from the unforgiving dirt.
And still there is the One who claims he will
restore the years the locusts have consumed,
will come to plant as once he came to kill,
bring life from death as Aaron’s staff once bloomed.
Other Bible stories from Moss Kingdom:
The Cain Series: The Birth of Cain, The Crime of Cain, The Curse of Cain
Old Testament: Some He Bruises, Some He Bleeds: A Sestina on the Covenants, Noah Wakes from a Recurring Nightmare, Abram the Pagan, For the Sake of the Few, The Deception of Jacob, The Unspeakable Name, A Sound of War in the Camp, A Lament for Michal, The Rape of Tamar and the Half-life of Joy, Numbered Numbered Weighed Divided: a Rubaiyat concerning Belshazzar’s doom, Jonah, The Years the Locusts have Consumed
New Testament: What need has He for our Democracy: A poem for Peter during his lapse, Silent Saturday, Does God still have a body?, At Simon’s House
The Letters to the Churches:
Apocalypsis, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea