January 5–11 ❘ Jochebed

Jan 5

Jochebed

I follow Moses too closely—
a mother who watches secretly
from across a great distance
will sometimes hover.

The night I saw him in midst of vision,
God’s glory was veiled from me
though it burned like reflected bonfire
from my son’s face,

but I saw the shining man afterward,
gilded pharaoh in painted pomp.
I feared Rameses had found him
at last. Hands pressed to mouth,

I cried in my mind,
You cannot have him!

The being sprouted claws and tore
like furious falcon-headed god
screaming for blood.
Such bitterness I hadn’t seen

since the day I set my baby in the river
in desperate last effort to save him.
Knee-deep in mud and obscured
by whispering reeds,

God heard every word I drummed
unceasingly at heaven’s door.
He answered then
as He does now.

I suppose He knows well
how to watch and hover
and wait for the moment when
a child finally cries out.

December 29–January 4 ❘ Another Exodus