# Oh Zealots So Red
So long a night, I scarce recall the days1
Before ambition seized my widowed heart.
Yes, open, lord, my lips; I'll tell your praise.2
A girl of seven years can play this part.3
Remember, husband-king, the vow you made
Before we wed: "Your son will reign," you said,4
"When, with my fathers, I at last am laid
Forever in my shroud and cedar bed."
Now may you live forever, O my lord.
Now crown my son and seat him on your chair,
Your red-eyed wife and nation have implored.
While still your life hangs by its brittle hair,5
Let only these two thoughts your mind allow:
Of cedar paneled chambers,6 and the vow.
# Footnotes
1: Bathsheba's inner thoughts are in italics.
2: See Psalms 51:15. Bathsheba considers the verse quite differently from the way David did.
3: The name Bathsheba means "seven year old girl" in Hebrew.
4: See I Kings 1:17.
5: Brittle hair, cold intolerance and mental clouding are symptoms of end-stage hypothyroidism, a possible cause of David's death.
6: In the Bronze Age, some royalty were buried in cedar coffins.
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