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.

• Read more of my poetry at www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry

• Contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com

• Read Why did some in Lehi’s time believe that Jerusalem could not be destroyed?