"Now It Came About in the Days of Ahasuerus," poetry

First Edition: LukivPress Online (Quesnel, BC), 2012. Revised Edition: LukivPress (Victoria, BC), 2022. Introduction Ahasuerus (likely Xerxes I, son of Darius the Great [Darius Hystaspis]) rules the Persian Empire of 127 jurisdictional districts, from India to Ethiopia (accession year: 496 BCE). But his self-serving Prime Minister, Haman, dupes him into authorizing the annihilation of all Jews in the royal realm. Haman, however, does not realize that the king's beautiful wife, Esther, is Jewish! This vindictive man's story of hatred for Jews contains plot twists and irony of such dramatic clarity that even a quick reading of Esther leaves the reader with a sharpened sense about Jehovah, a saviour and a God of justice. As the Almighty Saviour of his people (who once upon a time seemed doomed between the bloodthirsty Egyptian army and the deep Red Sea [1513 BCE]), Jehovah clearly not only saves his servants from grave danger, even extinction, but he also leaves disturbing yet memorable images, in the name of ironic justice, in history. For example, Haman erects a stake to hang Mordecai, Esther's cousin and guardian, upon. How he, full of arrogance and egotism, hates loyal, courageous Mordecai! But Haman ends up dead upon that stake, and Mordecai ends up serving Ahasuerus as the new Prime Minister! Likewise, Haman's murderous scheme for the Jews backfires, but this debunked politician doesn't live long enough to see the enormity of his failure. An excerpt Chapter 8 Persians, heavy-footed by dread,

Turned into Jews,

Of sorts,

And their flesh, no longer the variable x

Like Haman,

Stayed warm,

And they neither poured their own blood

Upon their own heads

Nor placed themselves like coins,

In dark Sheol, to pay

For rash thoughts

In the skulls of sun-crazed

Swordsmen. The author Dan Lukiv, published in 19 countries, is a poet, novelist, columnist, short story and article writer, and independent education researcher (hermeneutic phenomenology). As a creative writer, he apprenticed with Canada's Professor Robert Harlow (recipient of the George Woodcock Achievement award for an outstanding literary career), the USA's Paul Bagdon (Spur Award finalist for Best Original Paperback), and England's D. M. Thomas (recipient of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature, Orwell Prize [biography], Los Angeles Fiction Prize, and Cholmondeley award for poetry). He attended The University of British Columbia (creative writing department), the acclaimed Humber School for Writers (poetry writing program), and Writer's Digest University (novel writing program).