Fire
.
the Lord your God is a consuming fire
The stories of the gods outshine the moon
your story is darkness outshining the sun
we hide our eyes because of your fire
at the moment of the mountain
let not God speak to us lest we die
no wonder history gives us
cities like widows
sitting in their menstrual blood
no wonder book of revelation surges up
four horsemen orgy of vengeance
after nonviolent gospels
no wonder swarms of Christian soldiers
burning libraries
burning heretics
no wonder chapel in Cuzco
sculpted conquistador striding upon
the prone body of an Indian
no wonder imams cut hands off sinners
no wonder the Jewish lunatic murders worshipers
in a place of reconciliation
everybody trying to look goes blind
.
.
by Alicia Ostriker
from The Book of Life: Selected Jewish Poems 1979-2011
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012