January 8–14 ❘ Killing Laban

Written By Merrijane Rice

Killing Laban

An awful gulf divides
foolish boy 
who admires fine swords

from heart-sick man
who cuts through sinews 
like Abraham offering sacrifice

if he hadn’t been stopped
by the angel who argues
and wrestles to submission.

I am not a mighty poet,
and these plates are small,
so I won’t write how I still wake at night,

but instead beg mercy,
wretched as I am,
for the part within me

that hesitates in retrospect
at what it means to always
go and do what God commands.

Merrijane Rice
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January 15–21 ❘ Great and Spacious
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January 1–7 ❘ Testimony