The First Commandment

The First Commandment

“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?”

– Jer. 12: 5

The LORD would make

the Hebrew prophets eat

His words

and they would be sweet as honey,

or bitter. A furnace raging

in their bones until they spoke woe

and grace.

I am unworthy to face

such oracles, captivated

by all-too-mortal voices

that shake my soul.

Would that I not break

the first commandment.

But there are times I fear

I am turned aside after foreign gods,

hungry for their scrolls

to work their fierce magic

and ravish my cells

in lesser incarnation.

Patrick Todoroff