The Tomb of God : Three Heresies

Cooper Esteban

"Outremer"

I.
A cavernous black-- I knew-- though I
Could neither hear the space nor see.
No smell, nor feel, as though I held
A wax nose shut with a waxen hand.

But my belly raised the acid bath
Of a copper cent tied to the teeth.

II.
The vertigo of a fisher-boy
Spun in a squall on Galilee--
And rutlike troughs snapping the sail
While yellow vomit caulks the hull--

Is sunlight slow to burn through the clouds?
Then count the years that eat one shroud.

III.
And now I lie at rest except
For pilgrims kneeling at my vault--
Priests in cassocks shouting prayers
As though their god was short for ears--

And children tuning playful voice
To hymns because they have no choice.
 

"Nag Hammadi"

I.
You know the story that they tell,
The gospel of the Roman Paul--
That God left heaven for this hell
To save you sinners, one and all.
But can you stand the tale I share,
Or will your fingers stop your ears?--
That when the cross rose in the air
I was not there, I was not there.

II.
I stood with John in Jordan's flow
And felt the feathers of the dove
        Brush through my hair.
I turned to watch the people go
Till John called out, "The God of Love
Is like a serpent in the snow,
As slow to give his venom heir."
But when the principalities
And powers cast their treacheries,
And Jude kissed Jesus in the trees,
I was not there, I was not there.

III.
I was not there to feel the whip
In which the Romans tied their nails,
Or blushed to hear the Latin lip
And tongue cry out 'hail and farewell.'
You saw my fine disciples flee,
Denying that they spoke with me,
Or even knew the fishery
Of Chinroth's wind-torn beach.
--And when the saved leave act for speech,
And call out for me in their prayers,
And pass the peace from lip to cheek,
And salt their incense in the air;
When purple cloth arrays the meek,
I am not there, I am not there!
 

"Languedoc"

I.
"Was she with child by Jesus then?"
"What matter, Lord?  What matter?
Begetting is the way of men--
What matter, Lord? What matter?"
"But if she saw the shatter
Of the stone that sealed him in the grave,
Or touched the cloths rolled to the side
That only a grieving wife would save,
Or kissed the wrist-bones that still bled--"
"What matter, Lord? What matter?"

II.
"Did Caesar's gold buy Caesar's men?"
"What difference, Lord? What difference?
The cross would soon take Caesar in--
What difference, Lord? What difference?"
"But if the haloed god-prince
Of the icons never entered death,
Or fought Beelzebul to take
The righteous souls who followed Seth,
Is not our mystery a mistake--"
"What difference, Lord? What difference?"

III.
"I dream I see him in a ship
That leaves the holy coast behind,
The robe that hides the track of whip
And nail a-ruffle in the wind;
And hair, combed loose, obscures the trace
Of thorn-prints on the scalp and face,
And eyes that, for the first time, see
A dolphin leap across the bow
Are free to open lazily,
Unbothered by a childhood vow,
And rain-clouds hardly form to scatter--"
"What matter, Lord?  What matter?"
 

Cooper Esteban