The Social Status of Exodus
Out of the hands of God
the aboriginal
muscle-pattern
with its ominously
cruciform completion
in view of propagation
indulged its uniform
imputation
of the image and likeness
of DeityвБ†вАФ
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to satiety
and through varying civilizations
experimented in deformations
of contour
while fashion
and fanaticism disputed
with passion
the incompatibility
with his dignity
of exposing man
to the contemplation
of the insignia
of his origin
and continuity
Theological tinkers
and serious thinkers
attacked the problem
of dissubstantiation
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Some said
вАЬIt were better to cast it off from us utterlyвАЭ
And some took a plank of wood and set it
about with nails
and lay upon it
saying
вАЬThis will make us forget itвАЭ
Spiritual drapers
Popes and fakirs and shakers
decked it
out with oblivion
and let it
appear
to disappear
But to no effect
For men of a happyвБ†вАФgoвБ†вАФlucky vulgarity
relegated
this jewвБ†вАФjaw of general invective
to a hole and corner secretive
popularity
And absurd
as it may seem
the вАЬunprintable wordвАЭ
is impossible to erase from a vocabulary
And there arose another
greater than Jehovah
The Tailor
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вАФthe stitches of whose seams
He is unworthy to unloose
Out of the hands of Exodus
the Oxonian
seeming
a sunbeam that has chanced to stray
into a cutвБ†вАФaway
(Gentlemen
wear
clothes
with an easy air
of debonair
inevitability)
Clothed and shod
the tailorвАЩs concept of the man made God
(Sartorial peril of the yellow race
looking so out of place)
peoples the sod
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Under the shears
of the prestidigitator cutter
(who achieves
the unachievable Act of the Apostles)
the cruciform scourge
of conscience
disappearsвБ†вАФ
in utter
bifurcate dissimulation
leaving
only those inevitable yet more or less circumspect
creasings
in the вАЬlatest thing in trouseringsвАЭ
вАФor serge
And man
at last assumes his selfвБ†вАФrespect
And man with his amorphous nature
who defied
the protoform of Who made him
but has not denied
Him
obeyed
the tailor who remade him
and denies him
He is despised
this ostracized
fancier of travestied torsoes
weaver of figвБ†вАФleaves out of cheviot
who staked the plot
of manhood in his nobler form
The gently born
they turn away
from the tailor
Who knows?
вАЬMan that is born of womanвАЭ
Perhaps he chose
an occupation all too feminine
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Neither is this the reason that they give
(Thou shalt not look upon the face of God and live!)