Backward Mutters

The following poem is inspired by two scriptures: Revelation 12:15-17 which reads, “The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood,” and Luke 22:54-62 which tells of the Apostle’s Peter’s denial of Jesus. In addition, I was also inspired by Malcolm Guite’s poem, “What If?” Anyone familiar with his poem will recognized the debt. Any credit to mine is due to his. And fault is mine alone.

You may listen to read the poem via the player below.

From the Dragon's mouth words pour out
As a river where truth seems to shout:
The shameful curses and accusations,
Of scorching scornful condemnations,
The accuser’s raging imprecations,
To drown and make you his prize.

In desperate deceit we lie, we make
Excuses for self-preservation's sake.
We deflect, dismissing with simplifications
To manipulate another’s expectations,
Managing with half-truths our own reputation,
Denying there could be any association
Between our acts and the Father of Lies.

And in these moments when we double-speak,
Fearing the loss of the fame we seek
And terrified of their implications,
We deny every little insinuation
That could possibly merit an accusation,
We call down curses and condemnations
That we have any association
With this Teacher condemned to die.

It is then and there, at dawn's first light
When the rooster’s cry breaks the silence of night
We remember our confident exaggeration:
Defiant against His prognostication
That we could be tempted to prevarication,
Or withhold obedient offered oblation,
Deny our love — our chosen vocation
Merely to protect our own reputation?
And we see through The Other’s knowing eyes.

Swept ‘way — a horrified, humiliated heap
Tears pour and flood, with words we weep
For the hasty vows we swore in the commotion,
Of the sting of exposure and anger at the notion,
That one could be guilty of such insincere devotion…
Drowning in shame and regret and resentful emotions
No more words, no excuses, no alibis.

© Randy Edwards 2016, 2024 (edited)

linocut after: Detail of the woman and the beast spewing water into the earth, from the Welles Apocalypse, England, c. 1310, Royal MS 15 D II, f. 156r