Shiloh
By Tim Shey
Brutal deathdance;
My eyes weep blood.
Pharisees smile like vipers,
They laugh and mock their venom:
Blind snakes leading
The deaf and dumb multitude.
Where are my friends?
The landscape is dry and desolate.
They have stretched my shredded body
On this humiliating tree.
The hands that healed
And the feet that brought good news
They have pierced
With their fierce hatred.
The man-made whip
That opened up my back
Preaches from a proper pulpit.
They sit in comfort:
That vacant-eyed congregation.
The respected, demon-possessed reverend
Forks his tongue
Scratching itchy ears
While Cain bludgeons
Abel into silence.
My flesh in tattered pieces
Clots red and cold and sticks
To the rough-hewn timber
That props up my limp, vertical carcase
Between heaven and earth.
My life drips and puddles
Below my feet,
As I gaze down dizzily
On merciless eyes and dagger teeth.
The chapter-and-versed wolves
Jeer and taunt me.
Their sheepwool clothing
Is stained black with the furious violence
Of their heart of stone.
They worship me in lip service,
But I confess,
I never knew them
(Though they are my creation).
My tongue tastes like ashes:
It sticks to the roof of my mouth.
I am so thirsty.
This famine is too much for me.
The bulls of Bashan have bled me white.
Papa, into your hands
I commend my Spirit.
Ethos
February/March 1997
Iowa State University
Genesis 49: 10: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”
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Psalm 22: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.”
“Shiloh”: “They have stretched my shredded body/ On this humiliating tree.”
_____
Psalm 22: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws.”
“Shiloh”: “My tongue tastes like ashes:/ It sticks to the roof of my mouth. / I am so thirsty. / This famine is too much for me.”
_____
Psalm 22: “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”
“Shiloh”: “The hands that healed/ And the feet that brought good news/ They have pierced/ With their fierce hatred.”
_____
Psalm 22: “Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.”
“Shiloh”: “The bulls of Bashan have bled me white.”
_____
Psalm 22: “All they that see me laugh me to scorn.”
“Shiloh”: “The chapter-and-versed wolves/ Jeer and taunt me.”
“Pharisees smile like vipers/ They laugh and mock their venom.”
_____
Psalm 22: “Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.”
“Shiloh”: “Where are my friends? / The landscape is dry and desolate.”
_____
Isaiah 52: “As many were atonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.”
Isaiah 53: “He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him . . . But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.”
“Shiloh”: “My flesh in tattered pieces/ Clots red and cold and sticks/ To the rough-hewn timber/ That props up my limp, vertical carcase/ Between and Heaven and earth.”
_____
The Holy Ghost dictated "Shiloh" to me for three days back in the fall of 1996.