Behemoth

Behemoth

(He lies under the lotus plants, hiding in the protection of marshy reeds. Job 40:21)

Below the floating lotus the beast untimely hides
where marsh, mud and reeds provide
a covering from gray and olive skies.

The lotus stalks spread across the camouflage bog,
a crown upon the royal waters, pink flowers and
circling leaves adorn the diadem that floats;
a part and a whole, the lotus pod bends fully ripened

And scatters seeds across the silent water.
They turn and sink, and rise with the breath of the beast,
caught upon bubbles like rainbow confetti.

But finally,
beneath home and beast,
each seed settles upon the deep,
the mud enriched with plant and beast,
to begin the next vitality.

Sometimes they sleep in cracked earth
waiting for the Spring. Dormant is not dead,
but serene and unwearied. The life awakens
in the mud
as rain renews the germ, the miniature genesis
of behemoth’s shelter. On a quiet day,
with your ear to the ground,

Beloved,

You can hear both the beast’s slow heartbeat and the
seeds breaking the borderline between water and mud.