by Jacqueline Jules
Though
not even the priests
were privileged
to peek inside,
the ark--
acacia container
of the holy tablets
Moses cradled
down the mountain--
was lined with gold,
that strong, gleaming element
only corroded by greed.
The notion of using
valuable metal
on an interior no one sees
is as improbable today
as the politician
who shows
the same golden face
in private as in public.
Jacqueline Jules is a poet, librarian, and children's author. Her poems have appeared in Christian Science Monitor, America, Sow's Ear Poetry Review, Sunstone, Potomac Review, The Mid-America Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, and Lullwater Review, among others. She was a two-time winner in the Arlington Arts Moving Words Poetry Competition and twice a recipient of the SCBWI Magazine Merit Honor Plaque for Poetry. In 2008, her poem, "Bungee Jumping," won first place for Best Original Poetry from the Catholic Press Association.
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