Descending to the valley

We thought we felt a healing take root
That a purifying wind was passing through our minds and mouths
That we’d finally all be as one

We sensed it on that terrifying festive day
when with a potent hug
our father made peace with his brother Esau
ending a dispute that had predated us all by decades

Tears glistened in the dry air
We strode with triumph into the valley long withheld from us

Then to our ailing grandfather
whose sightless legend had filled the days of our exile with dread

The terrain over which our flocks passed was temperate
We found wells

Our father himself
seemed released from the discord in his own mind
long having been in contention with an undisclosed god
For once at peace he crept into camp
his steps heavy from his night in the wilderness

We rejoiced in aromas and tastes that told us we were home
never to wander again
or to serve malevolent overseerers in distant lands

We had saved our family from being engulfed
by an alien culture
And in further loyalty to our father
relinquished to him our idols
the strange work of foreign peoples

Endless extents of sunlight
swelling the plains we crossed
sang of our new wealth
and the harmonious life it fortold

Then the dissolution began

First one of our caretakers

Then Rachel herself
She who had given meaning to our father’s existence
who had always interceded for us

died in labor unable
to name her own last child

Moans raced wild as lions through the camp

Our hearts came to an end on that night

Things seemed to fall asunder
None of us could agree what to do
or how to treat Rachel’s elder son
lost in errant fancies

Conspiracies seized our tongues
The gentle spirit could no longer be touched

Far from us slipped that resolution
of being on a common journey
that had been our ideal
but that we now knew
every future generation would search for

Andy Oram
December 20, 2024

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