Reluctance
(to obedience, or we may need another hero)
The sons of death do not seek safe harbor in reluctance
they only know obedience
so, Abe's hand was stayed by agency,
or, was it an Angel?
Had his hand not stopped, then could have
Ishmael’s, or Jacob’s, line been lost?
Now, both.
Which binding was right, or left?
Witch devil should we stone: Obedience or Reluctance?
No angel am I, nor have I eyes
that still see the pillars of fire
pointing the way
to the river that will part
but, not for the ancestors of the sons of death, pursuing us
out of Egypt.
It’s always Egypt, for us,
as we remember:we are always strangers
and welcome the many with no reluctance,
to disobey:
no matter their eyes, color, age, size: no man or woman we fear
except for those who look at the world,
skewed, in detail, eyes averted, telling our stories
of what we know best, our deepest interest:
roses, dogs, and sons.
We know how pursuit feels,
and hunger,
and heat,
and thirst.
Panic quells when
"You are not one of us" is whispered
behind the icy masks of the evil-tongued of our own.
David, Joshua, Golda, Gideon, Jeremiah, Esther, Samuel, Saul, and Ruth each,
hesitated, and there is a cost to our stutter.
George knew enough to go home,
utterly reluctant to be a parliament
of owls, asking who, cooing “not yet.”
Yet, when Moses alone brought back the sheep
the angels followed, knowing
it's not enough to unknow the Lady Fear
Or, worse, to see the need
to instill her,
and default to that part of me
Who need not be visited ever again, or anymore.
So, there is a choice
soon to be made,
before we are bound, in sacrifice,
by Lady Hatred’s mezzo voice:
Reluctance sunsets in the West,
as Disobedience rises in the East.
Pharaoh in pursuit of the Israelites (Kronheim & Co., London), Private Collection
Musical Coda: