Capture Rapture

We’ve rescued the Garden of Eden,

took it back. God is blessed,

the terrors of the Enemy

to be expected. He loved those

apples, plums, nectarines, peaches.

The juices hissed down his dark hide.

They suppurated in the sacred rivers.

So we sat down and smoked by the waters.

We cleansed the apples and peaches.

We oiled them to such a bloom.

This for me was our great triumph.

The armoured vehicles alone used

more than a million gallons of oil

each day. We can see further.

From Samara to Naja. The first

serious resistance. We killed about 100,

imagine! the miracle of thermal imaging.

Then, a trial, the worst sand storm

for twenty years. The Garden receded

into the deluge. We pushed on.

Bravo 1 and Bravo 2 were buried -

they went up in flames. Bravo, brothers!

We got him out alive, decorated by fire.

The flaming sword. The Fallen One.

We were getting confused. Genesis

whirred and stuck in a dust djinn.

But in the end the Abrahams

tanks rolled into the oasis. Where Allah

lay burnt out as a little newborn child.

(What travesty! But we weren’t

that confused). We swaggered

on the enormous returning troop-carrier,

we laid it on the marble steps,

by the four corners, red-spotted,

we had tramped the dusty roads,

bundle over our shoulder, just a hobo

like from the poorest backyard.

Then God said: Shucks and Aw!

And we cheered and opened

our pocket handkerchief and

spread Allah, crisp as a fall bonfire,

at His long extensive toes.

Judikaz 2003 Published in Ambit 2006