A very lively rendering, Gary. Are yu two going to do the whole Bible?
SallyE
on 11/12/02 6:19 pm, Gary Blankenship at [log in to unmask] wrote:
> (This is part of a series I am writing with Ryfkah, a rewrite of Genesis
> which alternates poems where I use Lilith as the protagonist with Ryfsis's
> lyrical works. We went through the story to Abraham fairly easily, but I
> bogged down at Rebekah at the well and haven't offered any since June.
> Until now. Your comments, as always appreciated, and thank you in advance.
> But be forewarned, the work does not stand entirely alone. The coffee shop
> actually echoes back to the first of mine.)
>
> Rebekah's Well
>
> water
> drawn from deep wells
> to succor the servant's herd
> twelve camels as God's test for the second son's bride
> each bucket offered sweeter than the last
> another test passed
>
> a girl
> young as Caesar's queen
> chaste as Mother Mary
> honest as Ruth in the fields
> innocent as Eve before she knew pomegranates had seeds
> clever as Lilith at the end
>
> (I sit on another soggy day
> in the back corner of a Manhattan coffee shop,
> and I watch another of my daughters
> make another mistake,
> the same mistake made by every generation
> since the first mud hut was raised in Nod.
>
> And I tremble at the thought
> that I may have to save another daughter
> to advance my scheme,
> to return to My rightful place at Our Throne.
>
> *By the door, an account manager
> works up courage to ask me if I am
> or would like to join him or some other ridiculous question.
> I chill his latte to a frosty.
> He spits it on his suit, permanently stained.*
>
> I tire of this story. God's plan and mine
> diverged long before this universe revolved. We
> count equal losses, but he controls the host
> and I dare not, can not, contest them
> and despair as I have not since the desert trek.
>
> I am tired and wish for a new Beginning.
>
> Another bomb explodes in Haifa and I am tired.)
>
> the groom
> second-born
> resurrected sacrifice, uncircumcised
> prisoner to God's promise
> little more than a handsome footnote stuck between
> Father Abraham and Father Israel
> one son cursed
> without the sin of Cain or even Ham committed
>
> marriage
> in his mother's tent
> water from his father's well their sustenance
> God's pledge their only future
>
> (I tired of the lies I've told.)
>
>
> Dec Byron Sacre at: http://gardawg.homestead.com/gardawg.html... Writer's
> Hood at http://www.writershood.com/... Poets for Peace.... ˇPoemas sí, balas
> no!
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