Strange land dreaming

Having pulled the goat’s-hair

over his father’s desert-blind eyes,

and in order to escape some brotherly wrath,

Jacob is sent north with another parental blessing,

this time with the hope of finding a wife,

(or two), from among his cousins.

The loneliness of his journey

and the uncertainty of its outcome,

(serious business, taking a wife),

is allayed by the excitement

of his newly discovered independence.

Away from the dominating presence of his father,

and his stories of strange ancestors,

the younger son exults in his freedom

from family expectations

and unsatisfiable comparisons.

In a foreign land,

slightly fearful and largely weary,

he presses a stone into unexpected service

as a pillow.

Sleeping uneasily with the strange dreams

of the unfamiliar bed

he sees a ladder of angels

and hears the voice of his God,

far from home, surprisingly present,

but not unwelcome. 


Rev Ken Rookes