Charles Fishman

Abram and Sarai
Genesis 12-17

So Abram went to Canaan
and built an altar to the Lord
Still, famine struck the land:
the earth was bitter     Abram
followed his own compass

and trudged to the Negev    then
the Nile Delta, where crops
were flourishing    and he loaned
his lovely wife, Sarai, to Pharaoh
lest her ripe beauty get him killed

There’s a lot more to this story—
but mostly rewards and punishments:
what the Lord promised and what he
took away    also, who owned which part
of Creation    and how much it cost him

Of course, there were wars    pitched
battles    filial antagonisms    spousal
deceits:  who conceived    and who
inherited    who slew whom    and the long-
range consequences of victory

and defeat     How the Lord must have relished
this pageant of ruined covenants:
possessions lost    and dark karma acquired
a parched old man and woman    transformed
by divine whim    and given new names

a new mission    and a long memory
written in the flesh:  Sarah the wizened
and Abraham the broken reed:  progenitors
of a great people    haunted by history
and slaughtered to this hour.

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