Above an Empty Ocean Bed
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
An altar set to sea and air built high
To reach a God too far to touch, too far
From prayers, awaits a flame to fall and ply
It with destruction like Elijah’s char
Of stones and wood and water. Nothing comes,
Though. Atheistic silence and a breeze
Of doubt arrives. Agnostic faith becomes
An unburned sacrifice. Religious sleaze
Is left to triumph. Priests are missing who
Might cut their flesh and cry for Ba’al and so
A vacuum thrums through the hillside. True
Enlightenment does not descend or glow.
The prophet and the priests retreat to where
A blankness fills and throbs along the air.
~ Phillip Whidden