Struggling with Queen Esther (2006)

12 When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" – NIV Esther Chapter 4 Verses 12-14


The thing about Esther
is that when the Lord called, she went.

I wanted to write poems
that would fill the sky
and touch the shadow
of the moon
in the sea

I wanted to write
words
so that odd eyes
could see

Did
not
want to be battling
this other
thing,
this saving grace
for an irresolvable
puzzle

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish.

The thing about Esther
is that when the Lord called, she went.

If you don't do it, it will be done,
but you have been born to do it.

It was a test
a problem
that we
all
must know
someday

Did not want to be battling
this which rips the world with
unrelenting lashes
until
there is no skin

did not want to be
one of the men
dressing up
in God's shoes and coat
and pretending
to patch and mend
what we do not know

in this world
even doctors know their limits;
but we shove the sky
ad yell at the wind
and then have the gall to think
we can prevail

but
The thing about Esther
is that when the Lord called, she went.

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish.


mocked by her beauty
suffered for the
fate of men
but not a woman martyr

As a child we want to save the world,
never knowing that to do it, we'll give our lives.
And even then, the sacrifice is sullen
and small

after all,
and I

Wanted to write men’s hearts
They way my cursed eyes see them
But the vision
Was blocked by
Magenta possibilities
Encased by
gray
words

No. I have called you here.

And
The thing about Esther
is that when the Lord called, she went.

To be the savior of her people,
To be the servant of her God
To be the woman she never wanted to be
But must become.