Esther the Queen

[RiverNotch]

Esther the Queen


Holy men and those who would seek
to wipe out an entire race
are entitled to the same

judgement: the gallows.
Haman, of course, was not one of that illustrious
race, the Aryans: he had no love

for the Jews, no kinship with the heir
of the Lord’s Anointed.
He was merely a Macedonian,

an upstart from the West,
full of envy at the comeliness
of Mardochaeus' ward,

though what he saw the day the King of Kings
began to see the fairer sex
as more than just the fairer sex

was really a community affair.
Sure, Queen Vashti would have stripped
before the whole host of Media

just to have skin like hers, but an uncle had done her hair,
a cousin had picked her songs—Hurrian House mixes
of Elamite Girl Groups—while a whole team of neighbors

not only sewed all her dresses
but also constructed the cedarwood closet
in which they were all kept. And, in the morning,

when Artaxerxes had come to know
the pleasure of chastisement,
his Palestinian counsellor would admit
that, too, was a gift.

[dukealien]

Esther the Queen


Holy men and those who would seek
to wipe out an entire race
are entitled to the same  nice hanging word here - but does it imply too much (even with the following line):  does the whole race of a would-be genocide deserve "the same?"  Could perhaps clarify that "each" deserves the same, individually.

judgement: the gallows.
Haman, of course, was not one of that illustrious
race, the Aryans: he had no love

for the Jews, no kinship with the heir
of the Lord’s Anointed.  That would be King David.  

The sentence "Haman... Anointed" includes several twists, leaving the reader wondering if Haman hated Jews because he was *not* Aryan, or 
just because he was not a Jew.

He was merely a Macedonian,  Amalekite, which would be more of a non-Jewish Palestinian?  Easier to take this as a reference to the much later Alexander the Macedonian who made short work of Persia and fits the awakening interest in girls who are more than dancers.  OK, this is a non-canonical retelling then.  That's fine.

an upstart from the West,
full of envy at the comeliness
of Mardochaeus' ward,  Mordechai, OK.  Compounded of Greek ending and Marduk?

though what he saw the day the King of Kings
began to see the fairer sex
as more than just the fairer sex

was really a community affair.  Community of non-Persian influencers at the Persian court?  That works for the retold story... Haman and Mordechai did know each other, to Haman's annoyance about the pecking order.

Sure, Queen Vashti would have stripped
before the whole host of Media  clever pun on "Medea" unless Otto Korekt did it behind the author's back.

just to have skin like hers, but an uncle had done her hair,
a cousin had picked her songs—Hurrian House mixes
of Elamite Girl Groups—while a whole team of neighbors

not only sewed all her dresses
but also constructed the cedarwood closet  elegant references to modern beauty pageants in this sentence
in which they were all kept. And, in the morning,

when Artaxerxes had come to know
the pleasure of chastisement,  this line may be just a little too clever:  my first image from it was Xerxes taking masochistic joy in *being* whipped by a beauty, rather than himself chastising first Mordechai and the Jews (on Haman's advice), then Haman himself on Esther's

his Palestinian counsellor would admit  "Palestinian" here points in interesting directions:  Haman and Mordechai were both Xerxes' counselors, and both had connections to Palestine (if Haman was an Amalekite) 

that, too, was a gift.  nice near-rhyme ending and perhaps reference to Purim gifts

This is an interesting revision(ing) of the story of Esther, based on my very shallow dive through online sources to refresh minimal Bible knowledge.  The lesson (of the revision) is obscure to me, aside from suggestions of what-really-happened and just-a-myth that are pretty common today - Higher Criticism, you might say.

The three-line stanzas don't help the reading, but don't hinder it particularly, either - probably worth the trouble for that hanging (g) "the same" ending S1.  I presume this is a form with which I'm not familiar.

On the whole, this was a good read both before and while combing out the references.  Reminds one of how puzzling poetry which uses a lot of Biblical references can be to those of other dispensations.

Extended comment:  As the late Penmistress would say, "It could be worse."  And it could, if it had picked up the aspect of the Esther story I found most contemporary (or troubling), the repeated authorization from Xerxes for the Jews to kill their enemies.  This is troubling, first, because Israel in exile would, of course, have been disarmed and needed permission to arm themselves and fight Haman's thugs.  Does it need that today, and from whom?  Second, the tiny suspicion that this whole plot was a setup by Mordechai to place Israel in a position to get that permission (with himself as its advocate) using Esther as his stalking mare.  And thirdly, that the whole book may have been, in part, written to expound that permission.

[busker]

Esther the Queen


Holy men and those who would seek
to wipe out an entire race
are entitled to the same

judgement: the gallows.
Haman, of course, was not one of that illustrious
race, the Aryans: he had no love ... wait, Wikipedia tells me that Haman = Humayun, a Persian name (cue the Mogul emperor of that name). That would make him very Aryan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haman

for the Jews, no kinship with the heir
of the Lord’s Anointed.
He was merely a Macedonian,  ... he wasn't Macedonian, surely?

an upstart from the West,
full of envy at the comeliness
of Mardochaeus' ward,

though what he saw the day the King of Kings
began to see the fairer sex
as more than just the fairer sex

was really a community affair.  ....you've lost me here.
Sure, Queen Vashti would have stripped
before the whole host of Media

just to have skin like hers, but an uncle had done her hair,
a cousin had picked her songs—Hurrian House mixes
of Elamite Girl Groups—while a whole team of neighbors

not only sewed all her dresses
but also constructed the cedarwood closet
in which they were all kept. And, in the morning,  ... while it all sounds lovely, I can't make sense of the narrative

when Artaxerxes had come to know
the pleasure of chastisement,
his Palestinian counsellor would admit  ....anachronistic use of 'Palestine' before the Romans - deliberate choice?
that, too, was a gift.

Hi River - I haven't really scoured through the book of Esther to be able to make much sense of what's going on. Nice sounding lines, but hard to follow.

[RiverNotch]

thanks for the feedback! some philological notes (will put in spoilers for the sake of later, if any, critiques):

"the Lord's Anointed" here is deliberately ambiguous, ofc, but literally it translates to "Messiah", an appellation used not just for Jesus and the like but also for Cyrus the Great.
The source for this text is the LXX, which is the same textual base (for this particular book) as in Catholic Bibles and in the KJV's "Additions to Esther". There, Haman is explicitly called Macedonian, even if the rest of the text (especially the Hebrew basis -- it seems to me that the "additional" portions in the Greek text really were just additions, for this particular book, rather than a completely different recension, but I'll need to further look into it to confirm) implies he's something else.
That said, I should probably change back Mardochaeus -- Mordecai's name in the Greek/Latin texts -- to Mordecai, as otherwise I'm inconsistent in having kept Haman and Vashti's names, the transliterations in the classic translations being Aman and Astin.
I've found Media as the name of the homeland of the Medes people as much as just calling the place Medes, so I think it's a fair name here.
Wikipedia tells me "Palestine" was used by Herodotus, while my more general knowledge was likewise confirmed by the same site, that it shares a root with the Hebrew Philistine and the Egyptian Peleset. Either way, it definitely predates the Romans.

Re the extended comment, not so much a response as a small note:

That's an interesting reading. I think it's clear the piece plays around with ideas of Jewishness and genocide, but a big reason I had to have this critiqued was because this was written for an NaPM or an LPIA (I don't remember) some time ago, and I honestly don't know how well it did on the political front. Thanks again!

In all this, when I'm back on my computer again, I might do two things, so I hope you'll take this post as a version two:
> change the title to "Greek Esther"
> change "of Mardochaeus' ward" to "of Mordecai's young ward"
> change "when Artaxerxes had come to know" to "when Ahasuerus had come to know"

Thanks again!