Sunday, July 16, 2017

Jericho redux



After Isaiah 30

You hear the army march
around the city, each movement
sounding a bell of terror,
ringing to announce what’s
coming. But no one sends out
a scarlet rope, the mark of salvation,
and the first pebbles begin
to chip from the wall,
the pebbles followed by stones,
the stones by rocks, and
in a great rush of sound and dust
the walls crack and crumble
and explode, disintegrating
into defenseless disaster.
The city is the offering, placed
on the altar of its own design,
the sacrifice of its people
the atonement.

Photograph by George Hodan via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.


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