5. Seven Sons - 5. Priest

Seven Sons

An epic poem in 7 parts with Prologue and Epilogue

5. Priest

Elija, the fifth son, was not a strong child
Preferring the absence of noise and pure silence.
He was not a boy who could ever grow wild,
He was a meek creature who hated all violence.

El never would scuffle with boys in the street,
Evading all conflicts, encounters, collisions.
He’d never offend or give someone a fit:
Without insulting he’d try to make decisions.

The world seemed to him rather a cruel place
Where people’d forgotten ‘bout love and affection.
“Is there any way out for the human race?”
El thought. “Are we all on the path to destruction?”

It’s strange that those thoughts would come into his head
When he was a boy, when he was just a pupil.
At ten he would muse on raising from the dead,
And his classmates considered him to be stupid.

But El took no notice of what they could think,
They didn’t understand that he would serve the Savior,
“The One who can draw us all back from the brink,
The One who to all the righteous shows His favor.”

No wonder that El resolved to be a priest,
A man who can put wise an invet’rate sinner,
A man who can soothe even a savage beast
Inside (at least he thought so at the beginning).

Eternity waiting for those who didn’t sin
Or those who did all to have their sins forgiven,
El thought that his priesthood was a needful thing
For them who realized, “Our salvation’s believing.”

He entered a Catholic seminary
And showed there his strong belief in God Almighty
And his longing to enter the ministry
To help all poor people whose hopes had been blighted,

To show them distinctly there was a way out
If they would have faith in the kingdom of heaven.
El wanted the despairing to think about
The choice they were given and not to cry craven.

“Confess your sins and believe in paradise:
You will be rewarded on the day of judgment.
Ahead’s the eternal bliss, open your eyes.
If you’re against God then you will know His scourging,”

So spoke our Elija, after he’d become
A clergyman, to the people of his parish.
(He substituted for an old priest who’d gone.)
“I don’t want your souls which’re immortal to perish.

God’s love is enormous as the seven seas,
He will welcome with open arms His lost children.
It is in His power to cure any disease
And to change the mind of him whose fault is wild’ring.”

Elija was proud of the post that he held,
He liked to think that he was really important.
It can be said that sometimes, maybe, he swelled,
But it’s not the case when one can be called haughty.

Elija baptized, and chanted requiems,
And married — conducting quite many a service.
The parish loved him, he was worshipped by them
Believing he’d lead them to the Land of Promise.

But everything changed in the twinkle of an eye:
A dreadful disease came into the calm city,
The dwellers’ panic was incredibly high,
They died, and the Grim Reaper was very speedy.

Elija was awake for twenty two hours,
He was constantly called on to visit patients,
And he tried to do all that was in his power,
Absolving of sins, affording consolation.

He said, “This disease is the Lord’s punishment
Of those who’ve forgotten by Whom they’re created.
The Most High who is just wants you to repent,
You who with your impious pleasures are sated.”

Elija believed: only sinners fell ill.
But one day he was summoned to a child dying
At the age of two. “Oh God! Is this your will?
D’you not see a baby in agony crying?

He did not commit anything like a sin.”
The little boy’s death shook the faith of Elija.
He went out, but he still saw the suffering:
The number of the deceased was growing larger.

He strolled the night streets and did not go to bed.
Still shocked, he just could not pull himself together.
Early in the morning the priest was found dead:
He’d frozen to death in the cold winter’s weather.

6–12.12.99