How Jacob Loved

How Jacob Loved (1990)

When Jacob wept in Leah's arms, 
it was for Rachel's lies, her eyes
her knees, her almost perfect
feet

A stubborn dream that would not let him sleep 
when he had rolled aside 
from calculating sons

And when he heard
the jackals laughing in the Syrian night
and bore the tricks at Laban's hands
and saw her smile
he knew, as only great deceivers know
the truth
about her idol thieving hands

She wove and wove
a strand of night into her hair
a woolen band
a Syrian wolf to guard the fold

Through all those years of waiting he would dream 
of Laban's daughters, multiplied like sheep
in lines across the Syrian sand

She alone refused
to lay her child at his feet, herself
the gift

It was enough 
if he, his face upon her knee
could beg
to hear her tell again her dream of rungs
her spinner's hands to smooth his hair
to brush away at last
the lies he loved

Beloit Poetry Journal, Fall 1991 

Reviews

[Glen Yumang Manese]

THIS UNFOLDS LIKE A DRAMA THEME TO THE VERSE...AS A READER GOES ABOUT THE LINES OF THIS WRITE...YET EVEN IN THE MIST OF IT ALL...HE STILL HAD MUCH LOVE OF HER...AND THE LAST STANZA CLARIFIES THAT IN THE END...