There are no more gods
not because we murdered them
not because they died
not even because the One God
will not tolerate rivals
The rain has lashed them
to the backs of bleeding men
The wind has woven
a winding-sheet to wrap them
in the skins of bleeding men
And sun has burned them
drier than thirst and weaker
harder than toil
or the callused skin on the
palms of a labourer's hands
Humble you told us
humble in the face of fate
humble before you
And after you? - Humility
spitting in the face of fate
Those rocks that we laid -
now you shall lie under them
Those stones that we moved -
out of the pile of rubble
shall rise up a monument
There are no more gods
no longer the cry of fate
I am the One Cry
I am the whisper of fate
Mine are the faces of God
The form of the poem is an “Imayo”, which is a compound form of the
Tanka; a single Tanka requires 5-7-5-7-7 syllables and has just one stanza;
multiply the stanzas and it becomes an Imayo.
"There Are No More Gods" is published in "Welcome To My World, Selected Poems 1973-2013", The Argaman Press. Click here to purchase the book.
You can find David Prashker at:
http://thebiblenet.blogspot.co.uk/
Copyright © 2014 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press
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