Ezekiel's Tears

[71degrees]

Ezekiel's Tears

Day breaks purple on the canyon faces.
Cactus, white as bone with teardrop pads,
Grip the stone, as the sun overtops the crags,
And bloom red, waxy, smelling graceless,
Rancid, mean. Bluefly swarm the stamens,
Grow swollen, wasted, glittering hazily as
The sun drives like a bison cross the chasm.
The white pads flush green as her rays

Slip down the dome of the deserted sky. Bats
Drop flightless from the deep creases, beneath the weird
Formations, as the day dies, fall as dead,
Toward the closing blossoms, thick with feted
Fly, spread suddenly their leather traps,
Feast, and scatter the seed of Ezekiel's Tears.

Not sure if you're using Ezekiel from the Christian view point or the Islamic...it's my understanding prophecy from him differs in interpretation. As I read your responses to other critiques, I assume it's Christian and the destruction of Jerusalem temples. In that vein, the language works for me as a reader (rancid, chasm, etc.). Perhaps "cactus" could be more name specific (kind?)...that would give me a geographic image. Personification is awkward at the end of stanza one. "her" sneaked up on me and I had to stop and ask myself, "who her?" for a second.

Epic type images are hard sometimes. The capitalization of "Tears" for instance. Nothing wrong w/making the reader work but is it an actual reference to Ezekiel 24:16? Just curious.

I like the poem. I like the imagery represented here.