You say the horse has to die & come back

_____seven times

to face the beating in the grave.

_________________________________________& when she keeps dying,

_________________________You say something suddenly will come to her

____________when they ask her name.

At dusk she arises & rings the bells of coffins

to remind those who turned away

when she drew the highest number of times

they’d have to say the name of the high place,

where angels & aliens are the same

_______unresolved

_____________salvation.

You say: consider this a death

& listen. There is a number that draws her

closer to the blossoms You hang

inside the coffins. The blindfold You place

when she touches the wrong face. You say she has to lie

still inside another’s coffin as she’s beaten in the grave.

The heavens are really loud today as she’s beaten in this grave.

You say: Even at the bottom of an emptied coffin here I stand. Ask

her name. For all the times she denied the faint,

purple lights that interlace

hoof through hand. Beat

this grave. Ask her

her name.

___________________& she will listen for you,

 

____________________________________Great Concealed.

___________________________________________Greatest Other,

_______________________________________________Protector behind

______________________________________________________the Absolute.

Call me the fire hailing down on you. Emet.

Call me alien
rebel who gave
the shield to you

& your enemies. Emet.

Call me not the gun you fire. Emet.

Call me line of fire
when I’m staring you in the face

& you can’t see
what I made of you.
Emet.

Call me reveal. Emet.

Call me resealing. Emet.

Call me the seal & the horses beneath the seal.

Tell me not what you find. I made it within you. Emet.

Call me torn angel, call me war horse, dying upon the gate. Emet.

Call me first fire in the woods
who beat into shape

your hand & forged an axe
in the thicket.
Emet.

Call me your horses in the darkness

& there is a great fire among you. Emet.

Call me the terror in your horse’s eyes

when I come to save her life. Emet.

Call me the beating

your horse alive once

more in the grave.

Emet. Tell me your name.

Emet. Tell me your name & arise.

Emet. Arise.

Emet.

 

Rosebud Ben-Oni

 

 

 

 


Note: The word “Emet” means “Truth” in Hebrew; its root verb is “aman” which means to support. In Jewish prayer, “Dayin HaEmet” refers to The Righteous Judge, and “Baruch Dayan Emet” is said in times of loss and mourning. It is also said at the end of the V’ahavta to denote that the first person is not the congregant reading but the words of HaShem.