Song of Soloman - Chapter 2
by Roz Calvert
Song of Soloman - Chapter 2
by Roz Calvert
Verse 1: The tabernacle choir blasted salvation from the stereo. The Easter ham baked next to the Easter cake. She whispered to her cousin. Across the room a young man waited like an island unexplored. His shiny shoes pinched. She giggled and her cousin stared. He curled the tip of his necktie around his finger while they whispered too loudly.
He brought me to the banqueting house and his intention toward me was love.Verse 2: She rose and clapped to the spirit of the hymn. She twirled to the middle of the rug. He felt blood run to all the edges of himself. He watched the hem of her white dress swirl and linger round her bare legs.
How graceful your feet in sandals. Oh queenly maiden. Your rounded thighs are like jewels. Your navel is a rounded bowl. Your belly is a heap of wheat encircled with lilies.Verse 3: He rose and cracked his knee on the coffee table. He plucked up his new bible and opened the cover. "To our son at 16, Lamb of God." He moved away hunting chapter and verse with sudden alarm.
The grandmother was setting good china on the long table. Little children hunted eggs and chocolate in the cupboards. Some men in the hallway nipped from a flask. Brother Lewis pinched his wife on the ass. Other guests were prayerful.
Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love.Verse 4: He wandered with his bible shield. In the dining room he saw her again, filling a bowl with fruit.
Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples for I am faint with love.Verse 5: She held out a black plum to him. He froze. She took his hand and squeezed the fleshy fruit into his palm.
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!Verse 6: He turned to go. She held his hand. Her tiny lacquered claw pricked his thumb.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth...
Draw me after you, let us make haste...Verse 7: The black fruit split and wetted his hand.
You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.Verse 8: She took his birthday bible and unzipped it neatly to the end of Ecclesiastes. She touched her finger to her tongue and turned the last page slowly, undraping for his view the first page of the Song of Solomon. "Ever read this?"
I adjure you O daughters of Jerusalem do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready."No," he shook his head.
"Liar, you read it every Sunday in the back pew." She spun away from him like a scornful top.
Verse 9: He grabbed her sleeve and spun her back. "Come on."
My beloved speaks and says to me, "Arise, my love, and come away."
