November 2009
Yet further plumbing of the Babel concept. Genesis is rife with ambiguities. This one is more consciously mythological than the others -- which may be a weakness, I haven't decided.
Led out by the poor deaf beggars of Babel --
the first to recover, the last to be heard.
Struck dumb by the deaf and the children of Babel,
who were not sick, who could not be cured.
In a daze we were driven out, led by the deaf
and the youngest of orphans, grey children
who grew into strange grey angels, from whom
the race of the sphinx are descended.
Years later they would return to us, call us by forgotten names,
saying, "I know you, you are the wicked of Babel --
wicked in innocence, wicked in loss -- Go out from this place
before exile finds you." It would be whispered amidst the people
that Babel was among them, Babel the wicked,
which invited destruction. Fearing discovery,
We left Sodom with the lightest of burdens, in the dead night
we fled from Nineveh and Canaan, exile to exile --
we did this, but each did it alone -- exiles among exiles,
speaking in borrowed tongues.
In the desert I wasted for forty days, drunk upon wild honey.
When I was clean I went up to the Mountain of Moria.
On the high path they barred my way, one angel of dust
and the other of fire. "What could you offer in this barren place?
Yea, even that would be returned to you."
~~~
In the valley below Babel lived a tribe of herdsmen,
And among these rough people there were two camps,
The prophets of salvation, with their healing balms,
and the prophets of desire, with their dusky water.
The people drifted from camp to camp
according to their need: a sick man to the healers,
the restless man to the place of unrest. So it was that
each among them traveled the length of the valley many times,
meeting in cheer or in anger, according to the faction they now professed.
Coming down from Babel we were strange to them, and they
gathered around us, and both camps pressed heavily.
In our confusion we drank deeply from both cups; the people
drew back, and approached us no more.
