33. Israel

For forty days and forty nights
People wandered the deserts
As the hand of God shaped his newest jewel.
Through miracles
He polished it,
Through faith
He ground it
Slowly shaping his new treasure
Until it was perfect.
Moses, the child of the reeds
Washed the stone carefully
Pulling it out of the flooding Nile.
Even when they whined and moaned
And harsh tribulations caused them to lose faith,
He continued under the guidance of his master.
He brought laws to the great gem
They only thanked him with a golden cow.
Angered at the transgression the law was broken
A new jewel had to be made.
For another generation they wandered the desert
As the material was reused.
Slowly, a new jeweler came.
Yahweh’s Salvation.
Directing the Israelites to Canaan
Where they took the land
In accordance to a curse by the arc builder.
Kings came and went
Slowly polishing the stone
Making it shine with faith
David came to claim the throne for God
While Solomon built His house
But Solomon wasn’t careful.
He dropped it.
It shattered into two.

31. Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia,

A jewel between the rivers,

Shining through the dust and mud of the fertile plain.

The people were at the mercy of the gods Tigris and Euphrates.

They were cranky and unpredictable.

When they felt generous, they’d flood the land

The crops would be destroyed.

If they felt stingy, the land would dry out.

The crops would be destroyed.

In order to appease their gods

Ziggurats were built.

Temple towers

With stairs going up to the heavens.

“Dear gods,” the man said.

“I survived to the next year; the appointed time passed.”

“I turn around, but it is bad, very bad;”

“My ill luck increases and I cannot find what is right.”

With the rivers Tigris and Euphrates

Even the diviner with his divination could not make a prediction.

Since Sumerian gods didn’t create a better life it was up to them.

The gods didn’t care.

To them, man was to work and slave in the fields

Sumer begot Akkad which begot Assyria and finally Babylon.

The land begot Israel from father Abraham in Ur.

Babylon’s great kingdom and their great king

Saw to it that laws were written

So that order can be restored.

An eye for an eye,

A tooth for a tooth.

If a man has knocked out the eye of a patrician,

His eye shall be knocked out.

If a patrician has knocked out the tooth of a man that is his equal,

His tooth shall be knocked out.

And so it was,

Order was restored

In the land where gods didn’t care.

3. Galaxies, Stars and Planets

Gas,

Dust,

Light,

Energy,

Matter,

Atoms,

Molecules,

Etcetera, etcetera,

Forever and ever amen.

Swirling around in blackness.

Growing together

Gaining mass.

Stars group together to become massive stellar octopi.

Black holes,

The eternal darkness

Set the octopi in motion

As they eat the stars.

Slowly spiraling through the cosmos

Super-massive stars ignite,

Burn out

Explode into novae and supernovae.

The remnant nebulae become wombs for new stars

Life begins anew.

They are the heavy element factories.

Expelling gas and dust around them,

Forming heavier objects.

Fragments of burning rock

Slowly coming together.

Birth and rebirth are part of the universe.

Out of destruction comes creation.

The fall of one star ignites new ones.

The old reforms to new.

Cycles continue over centuries and millennia.

Planets form,

Are destroyed.

The process is repeated.

Life,

Light,

Land

All come and go.

Repeating throughout the universe.

The divine laws of physics and quantum physics are set in place.

The stars have their job and they do it well.