Therapy Poems: 5 - Ancient Manuscripts Poem by Gloria Kim

Therapy Poems: 5 - Ancient Manuscripts



Skin of lamb pummeled smooth, papyrus peel glued in mystery,
other papers - sheaves of rice, leaves of wood,
I have found them perfectly preserved to the eye
in pictograms accessible, not Greek or hieroglyphic.
Scrolls unfolding a personal rune deeply etched long ago -
stories waiting all these years for an historian's heartful rendering,
fleshing out the dry-boned quotidian
zapping with electrifying current
the static log of an ancient state of affairs.

To the untrained eye the tale is dry:
an official, factual account -
explanations, explications,
balanced reasonings
justifying keen decisions
duly documented
on finance and war, internecine relations and
foreign intrigues innumerable.
These were the things
that occupied the ancient queens and kings.

How shall I relegate again to ink and pen
these tales of loss and calumny I have learned to read
between the lines aloud at last
and wept over?
For the old words but circumscribe
the turning away
and turning away
and turning yet again away
from a child's need for love.

A Christian shame, holding an infant of foreign birth
in utmost high holy regard
while leaving to wayward fate and stranger myth-making
the flesh of your own flesh.

Claim Abrahamic descent?
He did not wield his knife.
No father he
to such Christianity.

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