THE SUN-GOD AT MOUNT HOREB
Sun-god
sitting still on mount Horeb
amidst the stark clouds,
sweeping towards the swept
open space between trees
and pawing at white and dark fleshy flesh.
Sun-god
your pale, smirky lemon face
like the grapefruit in Ago-Iwoye Market
scribbles dirt patches on my face
and makes my throat to swill water
enough to fill up a tank-container.
Oh sun-god!
I plead,
do not douse us all
from this buzzy day
only 'dap' softly softly
into the balmy, cozy night.
Moses and the Burning Bush -- Edward Knippers
Horeb, “the Mountain of God,” is where Moshe received the 10 Commandments from God, according to the Book of Deuteronomy. In “Exodus,” from within a burning bush at Horeb, God commanded him to lead the Jews out of Egypt. It may have been an alternative name for Mt. Sinai; based on linguistic analyses, the Jawhist and Priestly Sources employ the name Sinai, while the Elohist and Deuteronomist sources use Horeb. (In 1878 Julius Wellhausen identified 4 sources of the Torah, written by various authors and combined into a single document by a series of editors over several centuries.) Perhaps “Horeb” meant “glowing” or “heat,” a reference to the sun, while “Sinai” may have been derived from Sin, the Sumerian moon god who was recognized as the supreme creator during the time that Ur was the ruling city in Mesopotamia.
ReplyDeleteAgo Iwoye is a city in Ogun, Nigeria.