Elihu Departs by Geoffrey Reiter

He needed (so he thought) to speak, to preach his learned speech
Pontificating to the man with scar-boiled pustules oozing,
Who (lying, dying in the dung, his dry tongue caught mid-screech
Lamenting his crushed seed) had dared to harrow God, now choosing
Here in Uz to spew his blasphemies. And Elihu
Cannot stay silent. So he talks, expostulating on
How in the great God’s court the mortal man must yield unto
His might, the blight of lightnings crackling, now unshackled, dawn
Half-hid in cumbrous cloud. He talks in grand theologies
The power of glowering deity, immense and terrifying,
His scowl on the horizon…
                   Elihu’s apologies
Now hollow out amid the roar of storm; so hear his crying—
He scampers from the tempest’s answer, fleeing from the thunder,
His sterile discourse drowned out by the voice of cosmic Wonder.

This poem is a formal poem based on a somewhat obscure biblical figure. In this case, it's a sonnet from the perspective of Elihu, the pompous young theologian who pops up briefly near the end of Job before disappearing again.

Geoffrey Reiter