[Verses in Verse] The Ark and the Dove

"Verses in Verse" is a series of poems based on Bible passages, in which I try to re-tell the meaning of the passage but from a different perspective.  Here is the story of Noah's ark, as experienced by the dove.

A tale from ancient Ararat:

Under young Dove’s watchful eye,

The frame of the great boat took shape.

Each beam was placed with pains untold

For Noah’s building crew was slim

(It was just his three sons and him.)

Around the floating zoo’s construction

Mankind frolicked toward destruction.

At night the drunks went stumbling home

By day the quarreling boys threw rocks.

The Dove grew old until at last

The final nail was driven in.

She fluttered ‘round the upper deck

And perched on new-hewn gopher wood

As Noah’s family bustled in.

Dove’s eye saw what man’s could not:

The hot sun blazed, but in the west

A tiny, smudge-like rain-cloud grew.

Dove sped to town: “It comes!  The rain!”

“Get on the boat!” she squawked in vain.

But people hardly noticed her,

And if they looked up from their sins

They only shrugged at her strange calls,

As frenzied Dove flew house to house.

With the first fat drop of rain

All warning time was at an end.

Noah drove the last two goats

Into the ark’s new livestock pens

And Dove soared in (the last one saved)

As Japheth slammed the main door shut.

The first few days were hell-like there

As beasts and men clawed at the hull

Their wails and cries and roars and sighs

Stole sleep from everyone inside.

The wrath of judgment drowned the earth.
Soon all was quiet ‘round the boat.

The next few months were long and wet.

Old Dove was tired.  She longed to fly

On hillsides lush and prosperous.

Instead she lurched, green at the wings,

And held her perch in seasickness

Afraid to fall among the wolves.

One Sabbath, Noah sought her out:

 “How are your wings?” (Dove flapped them twice.)

He nodded at her eagerness

And took her up to the top rail

To give her this important task:

“Fly on until you find the land.”

She caught a breeze and flew a-sea.

There was no earth to be found

That week, so she returned to rest.

The next week she flew out again

And found some trees up through the sea.

Oh, hopeful, long-awaited sight!

She plucked a branch and resumed flight.

Back at the ark, the family gasped

With reverence at the olive branch.

They praised their God (she praised him too),

For now they knew the end was near.

Next week she flew out one last time,

And landed on a lush, green hill.