Bathing with Bathsheba

Bathing with Bathsheba By Mark D. Stucky As you bathed bare below the high palace were you intentionally seductive? The citadel was in plain view, and so apparently were you. Or were you simply innocent, and the king abused his power? Was it a me-too moment those three millennia ago? Nonetheless, you became complicit in David’s paternity cover-up. You closed your eyes to consequences of a conspiracy plotting betrayal, and unfortunate Uriah lost both his “lamb” and his life. When David’s resulting infant died from a fateful illness, did you whole-heartedly mourn for your late husband and child? Did you desire a do-over to undelete their ended lives? . . . But is today a we-too moment? Are Americans all Bathshebas? Will we bathe in regrets for sins of commission and omission, over our actions and inactions, flirting deliberately with danger or acting intentionally ignorant? As a complicit collective, with democracy endangered by a groper and his groupies and eyes carelessly closed to gun and climate violence, will we grieve aftermaths with broken, anguished hearts? (See also my poems "The 2023rd Psalm" and "The Art of the Devilish Deal.") (Edited photo taken originally by hike4life687 on Pixabay.)