The Way of the Righteous

[busker]

The Way of the Righteous


When I was dying, my heart called out
Why, my Lord,

but you cut me off.
And out of the desert country rose
flowerlike a seat of domes
that in its imposition seemed
eager to consume the sun,

floods that washed away the sand 
like you washed feet,
streams that carved their way through rock
like you tore veils,
trees that were born of fossil seeds
like you raised the dead,

and (as if invited by your placid
gaze) a dusty wind that blew through the church
and scraped away your face---

were you gone so long?

I think the poem would work better without the similes, because sometimes it's better to let a vague profundity obscure the central absurdity of the Christological fables.
Less cynically, this is not a psalm. It lacks the from-the-heart spontaneity of the greatest psalms, that even in translation make your hairs stand on end, the Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord  type of lightning strike.

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By

"And out of the desert country rose
flowerlike a seat of domes"

I can only infer a reference to Islam having supplanted Christianity in the original Christian countries, which misses the irony of the fanatical Christians having first wiped out the old religions from said place, and replaced Greek philosophy with their own brand of sophistry that in the present day only impresses in certain parts of the America and the third world.

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If there was irony somewhere in the poem, I missed it