Babel
As the tower comes closer, God presses his ear
to the pearly firmament. Beneath the tick tick tick
of pulsars, he hears the moan of timber, lisp of rope,
and the men learning -- first they gain the word
that opens rocks, then the tap tap that calls up rain.
Soon, He thinks, they shall learn
the empty language, how the dead speak
like cold chimneys. After that, they will fall
away from me. His hands open
like rivers. His breath pours out
in streams of cirrus.
4 Comments
I like this one. Although I don’t understand the empty language part.
I like this very much. The “empty language…how the dead speak” part puzzles me, though. Does it mean the language passed on through writing?
O, you knew I would like this and, so, I share something back. Etemananki, “The Fundament of Heaven and Earth” was the name of Nebuchadnezzar’s great ziggurat which many believe was the inspiration for the Tower of Babel. Standing some three hundred feet high and dating to the time of the Babylonian Exile of the Jews, it would have been a focus of effort and ambition in Nebuchadnezzar’s polyglot city.
Excellent piece! Wonderful way to present the knowledge of the ancient language that was once know by all before God decreed that there be confusion among men. Brilliant to deem it as empty, a language understood only by the dead “like cold chimneys”, beings now in God’s presence, where life(warmth) once dwelt, and the ending open to interpretation. I chose to visuallize God’s hand giving no protection from falling, once we’ve neared the top, and softly blowing to slow us down, not desiring to cause direct harm, just slow us down. Very gentle and contemplative actually. Again, positively brilliant. I’d only suggest that you might consider (in line 4)to have the men be “leaning” (depicting man’s stretch for understanding) so that the reoccurance of “they shall learn” will be less of a given in line 6.