
Elisha, Redux
I had a dream in the blink of an eye.
I thought happily, well, why not, I sighed.
If only I could end suffering, I would try.
I begged the Lord, Let me heal, praying.
I felt heat in my hands, red flaring.
With the healing gift I went seeking the sick, caring.
When I found one I touched him with feeling.
He would stare at me silent, tearing.
Soon I found others and did the same.
Then they found me, in my holy domain.
The word got out, more like a shout;
first one, then dozens came for relief;
then thousands were pounding my door to my grief.
Exhausted, sleepless, I had more than my fill.
Lord! Cease the red flaring making me ill.
I prayed to the Lord finding myself shocked
as the banging on my door neither lessened nor stopped.
A Voice sorrowful said, What did you think?
You could be like God with a blink and a wink?
What was Elisha thinking?
Actually, Elisha the Prophet was God loved and biblically a profoundly moving presence in the Bible. Elisha Redux has him speaking a modern vernacular and is a much more lightweight character befitting a modern man trying ineffectually to mimic one of Elisha’s most characteristic capabilities, that of healing. See my The Shunammite Woman for a glimpse of his stature. This poem is a chiasm where the poem achieves a sort of closure when the end of the narrative refers back to the beginning. The center line of the poem represents the turning point of the narrative. So the first line in the poem mirrors the last line in messaging, the second line mirrors the next to last line and so on. (See my commentary on another chiasm I wrote for substack, Esau’s Blessing.) Elisha Redux has good intentions but he discovers ruefully that he does not understand the purpose of suffering, its relationship to sin, and the God infused messaging that suffering targets about which the original Elisha surely had more clarity. The painting below shows the original Elisha with humility about to help the Shunammite woman whose child he had promised God would provide her and who now lay dying.
| Prophet Elisha and the Shunammite woman on Mt. Carmel |
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