Psalm Project, Psalm 7, This is getting weird

Alright, so this poem got strange. I blame the weirdness entirely on the film I watched the night before, Cloud Atlas. This is certainly a weird movie but I had one scene in mind, where people are being flayed in a factory hanging upside down like a meat locker to be turned into food. Gross. I know. Sorry. However when I sat down to look at Psalm 7, that image struck a chord. Here is the original text.

Psalm 7

A shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjamite.

1 Lord my God, I take refuge in you;
    save and deliver me from all who pursue me,
2 or they will tear me apart like a lion
    and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
3 Lord my God, if I have done this
    and there is guilt on my hands—
4 if I have repaid my ally with evil
    or without cause have robbed my foe—
5 then let my enemy pursue and overtake me;
    let him trample my life to the ground
    and make me sleep in the dust.
6 Arise, Lord, in your anger;
    rise up against the rage of my enemies.
    Awake, my God; decree justice.
7 Let the assembled peoples gather around you,
    while you sit enthroned over them on high.
8     Let the Lord judge the peoples.
Vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness,
    according to my integrity, O Most High.
9 Bring to an end the violence of the wicked
    and make the righteous secure—
you, the righteous God
    who probes minds and hearts.
10 My shield is God Most High,
    who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
    a God who displays his wrath every day.
12 If he does not relent,
    he will sharpen his sword;
    he will bend and string his bow.
13 He has prepared his deadly weapons;
    he makes ready his flaming arrows.
14 Whoever is pregnant with evil
    conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
15 Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out
    falls into the pit they have made.
16 The trouble they cause recoils on them;
    their violence comes down on their own heads.
17 I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness;
    I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.



The verse that stuck out to me was verse 2, the lion ripping David to shreds. It is a very visceral, carnal, fleshy image. However, David is using a metaphor here. I thought how much more powerful and cruel it would be if humans were doing the ripping and shredding. We see that in what happened to Christ for sure. It is far more disturbing to see how Jesus died compared to someone killed by a lion.

This brings me to Cloud Atlas where the humans were flaying other humans for eating. It was disturbing. Even more so it was so sterile. It was a scientific mutilation. It was desperate or wild. It was calculated, practiced, and rehearsed. So here is my response to Psalm 7:

Soap

“Or they will tear me like a lion and

Rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.”

                -Psalm 7:2

My skin marinates for two days

In this tub of almond milk.

Thirteen Chinese women come in each hour

And wash me with steel wool.

Their neon purple hair never gets wet.

A fireman’s hose knocks

Me off my feet until I crumple.

I can’t breathe anymore. I vomit.

Naked arms and turquoise bikinis

Shave my hair until I am new and bleeding.

The hose again.

The hairless guilo never cries.

Soon they will peel me,

Place my skin on long hooks,

Cure the white hide.

Again and again it will soak

In bleach until blood is a memory.

I will die skinless and bleeding,

Found lidless with sloppy hands

Scooping up the veins that run wild.

Were they lions they would eat me,

But crueler hands will harvest

This pitiful mural of a man

Until I am whole again, and ripe.