Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: FEATHER (08/20/20)
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TITLE: A Feather in God’s Scales | Previous Challenge Entry
By Bruce Phenix
08/26/20 -
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ADD TO MY FAVORITES
No more do counsellors and prefects seek my face,
no more do governors and satraps share my feasts.
Now, ox-like, bathed with dew, I dwell among the beasts
and, watching seven times of madness slowly pass,
I drink from puddles and I crop the shrivelled grass.
This is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
whose splendour has departed, whose glory is gone.
Dim memories of silver cups and golden plates,
my ziggurat-filled city with its hundred gates…
Warm baths, a trimmed and tended beard, the tongs that curled
the hair of the exalted ruler of the world…
That hair, as long as feathers on an eagle’s wings,
now mocks the former greatness of the king of kings.
This is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
whose splendour has departed, whose glory is gone.
The dreams and fantasies and visions of my head
that slid beneath the door to haunt me in my bed
have now become reality. Can all the laws
of Hammurabi rid me of these bird-like claws,
these demons’ talons on my fingers and my toes?
Can Nebo, my protector, change the fate I chose?
This is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
whose splendour has departed, whose glory is gone.
Still, in the wretched ruins of my human mind,
appears the fresh and lovely bride I left behind.
Perhaps from lush and hanging terraces she sees,
beyond the pomegranates and the orange trees,
the mighty Ishtar Gate, Procession Avenue,
and feels, like me, upon her cheek the cooling dew.
This is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
whose splendour has departed, whose glory is gone.
Yet if the Most High wills, my reason shall return;
for all my pride has been brought low so I might learn
to honour him. ‘His ways are justice,’ says the ox;
‘and all his works are truth,’ reply the dusty rocks.
Now, stretching out to him my thickened fingernails,
I know my reign was like a feather in his scales.
This is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
whose splendour has departed, whose glory is gone.
Based on Daniel, chapter 4.
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