Face Of My Father

Face Of My Father
© Surazeus
2023 07 15

Both Zeus and Jehovah, as tribal gods, 
are images of how fathers perform 
their roles as progenitors of great heroes, 
the mocking manipulator of puppets 
and the disciplined enforcer of rules, 
teaching their children how to deal with Death. 

Since pain of suffering agony of hope 
sparks glow of memory that lights my mind 
with preternatural flame of divine truth, 
I feel bright moments of epiphany, 
my ancestors experienced, program how 
I now perceive fraught nature of this world. 

Each timeless hour in ancient times long gone 
some nameless ancestor who made my soul 
screamed loud war cry to battle against death 
informs how I decide acts to perform 
as moral guide that plots how I behave 
when I must navigate pitfalls of death. 

Stark memory of their pain projects bright face 
of Zeus or Jehovah on glowing clouds 
that mirrors face of my father whose eyes 
blaze with lecture defined by his world view 
that teaches me how to transcend my fear 
so I will create rather than destroy. 

The father who torments me with despair 
by filling me with spirit of Achilles 
motivates my aggressive stance to fight 
with fierce intention to defend my right 
when I destroy fortress of the oppressor 
and hurl the tyrant from his throne of greed. 

The father who inspires me with bold hope 
by filling me with spirit of Israel 
stimulates my strength of zealous free will 
to wrestle demon of my energy 
so I can crown myself messiah sleuth 
with mission to investigate the truth. 

These tribal fathers of ancestral gods 
still glow as concepts in my dreaming brain 
programmed by sermons for two thousand years 
as each ancestor gazed up at bright clouds, 
convinced some supernatural being in Heaven 
observes their deeds to judge their characters. 

But Zeus, Jehovah, Jupiter, and Odin, 
and other gods worshipped by human beings 
in every religion around the world, 
were mortal men who proclaimed themselves gods 
to order chaos of human desire, 
so all their idols stand in my Dream Temple.