Down, Down, Down She Goes

Here today.  Gone tomorrow.  Down, Down, Down she goes….

The Valley sweet with burning perfumes

Cloud of myrrh and aloes 

Up the glossy hills to call her down… .down

Leave her, He says, Let her go

The dazzling drink that dulls the eyes

A companion to the shamed

She who makes a bed in the paradise

Of wantings that promise a silky wrap of visible fame

Down, down to buy yourself a blessing

To retain free gifts at a price

The body moans and is spread with the fragrance

Burning sacrifice on the coals of a life

Down she goes and all lovers

Leave her, He says, Let her go

‘Til the wasteland of Admah has overcome the finery

Riches spoil and bodies grow old

Ah my materials!  Lavishly piling underfoot

Ah their grasping coils, how they billow, they cover me

Unclean

The windows are open, the curtains are sheer and 

All the dark fires are visible beneath

For shame to cover shame

For wealth to be rotting treasure, but surely today

It prizes her, when she is not down

Down, down, down

And Israel’s Divine Lover says, “I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me,” Hosea 5:15.  He will let her go down, down to the pleasures of sin for a season… .until they are through with her… .until she pursues and is worn out.  “She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them.  Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then then now’,” Hosea 2:7.