What would you have done if you were Esther?
It's funny how a movie changes the way you see something. I went and saw 300: The Rise of an Empire yesterday and in doing so realized how a piece of history came alive for me. I had never connected the dots that the King Xerxes in this movie is the same King Xerxes that Queen Esther married. When you think of her and her background and being picked as queen is mind-boggling to say the least. I wrote a couple of poems about this.
To Defend a Kingdom
Kingdom against Kingdom
were the Persians and the Greeks.
Greeks defending a Persian invasion
resulting in great sea battle leaks.
A sea of frothing madness
brings forth every blood and gore
and a piercing anguishing sadness
to the very heart of its human core.
The Battle of Salamis
proved pivotal in history
because without this Greek triumph
our civilization would never be.
A Love Not Understood
A king of battle, blood, and gore
born to ostentatious opulent luxury
was Xerxes, more god than king, of Persia
which puzzles me all the more.
Why Esther became his queen
also known as Hadassah, an orphan
a mere girl full of innocence
and none more pure to be seen.
How did this conquering king of war
and his simple Jewish bride
become part of a timeless love story
woven through the tapestry of lore?
A queen who knew about a secret
of a hidden people that was hers
that prayed to a mighty God and King
of heaven and not of this earth yet.
For as Mordecai, her uncle,
relayed to Queen Esther when they spoke
your destiny by God as queen
was made for this debacle.
So Queen Esther sacrificed her life
to visit King Xerxes unsummoned
and to invite him to a banquet
where she planned to share her strife.
If I perish so be it, I must die
but I must die trying to save a people
that God ordained to worship
him only instead of living a lie.
King Xerxes who was knowingly feared
held out his scepter to one he held dear
and accepted Queen Esther's
simple request and greatly revered.
A mighty king and a simple girl
were married in a love story
instead of two ships passing in the night
as some great loves become a twirl.