The First Commandment
“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?”
– Jer. 12: 5
The LORD would make
the Hebrew prophets eat
His words
and they would be sweet as honey,
or bitter. A furnace raging
in their bones until they spoke woe
and grace.
I am unworthy to face
such oracles, captivated
by all-too-mortal voices
that shake my soul.
Would that I not break
the first commandment.
But there are times I fear
I am turned aside after foreign gods,
hungry for their scrolls
to work their fierce magic
and ravish my cells
in lesser incarnation.
Patrick Todoroff
Hot Space Station Justice 