One Night With The King Poem by Terri Ann Stone

One Night with the King

One night with the King,
12 months of preparation,
Beautification and pampering,
Treated like queens,
For one night with the King.
Who was I but just another concubine from His harem of lies?
A Jewess, that none knew but my uncle Mordecai.
One night to prove I was the one he desired for queen.
Remembering that night
What a night
I must prepare as I had for that night

For one night with the King
Haman out to destroy all my people
NO!
I must stop this, Mordecai says.
Look at Haman standing there proud and loud
Standing next to the King bending his ear with his lies
Yet, so many years ago he sliced through my mother and father.
Oh how he hates the Jew.
This hatred of his has festered through my mind,
Like a disease festers through a body gone unchecked.
Why must I be the one to go before the King to break this fever?
Is there no one else Adonai who can go to court his Kingship?

Oh, one night one dreaded night with the King
If it be your will Adonai
I will slice Haman’s evil doing as he sliced my Kin.
If it be your will Adonai,
I will bow before the King and perish.
I will perish for going before him.

Oh Poor Mordecai
Ashed and wearing sack cloth.
How pitiful,
A man of stature
He once was.
Now praying and fasting for the safety
of his people.
I yearn to pass but a morsel of the banquet
to him that I feast on nightly.
But if my people are meant to suffer so shall I.
Send word!
It is done!
No food or drink,
we all shall
Pray continually.
Then, I will petition His Highness
for the chosen people of the land.
Gather up my hand maidens!
Now is our shining moment!