Tracy Marks
Exodus 3: 2-5 Retold
An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire
out of a bush.
He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame,
yet the bush was not consumed.
Why are there bulldozers ravaging the garden,
My secret sanctuary?
The chrysanthemums, hyacinths, peonies,
The rosebush blushing with hot pink petals,
A profusion of color.
Why not uproot the weeds and leave the hollyhock,
The sunflowers bobbing their heads, celebrating summer?
Why are there bulldozers ravaging the garden?
I was watching when they came,
First the rough scraping of the rakes
And then the plough
Leveling the ground with rusty roar
As it tore through the flowerbed,
Pulled at roots which refused to give way,
Clinging to their sacred foundation.
I heard the shriek of the defrocked rose,
The shrill cry of the iris,
Its ripped and jagged wings
Crushed into coarse earth,
And flung through the air,
scattered with topsoil by the wind.
Why are there bulldozers ravaging the garden?
When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him.
"The time of flowers is over," He said.
"You must not cling to spring
Or try to contain summer.
Let go of your blossoming.
Next," He said.
"Plant corn.
Plant carrots.
Plant kale."
"Now?" I ask, stepping forward.
And He said, "Do not come closer. Remove your sandals from your feet for the place on which you stand is holy ground.
Tracy Marks won the Greater Miami Poetry Festival twice when she was a teenager, but wrote few poems as an adult until her Muse recently reawakened. She has an M.A. from Tufts in the teaching of English, and is both a literature and computer graphics instructor. Tracy is also a licensed counselor, and author of four books on spiritual, psychological and astrological topics.
