The crossing

Haiku for a remarkable escape.

The just-freed people

head south-east out of Egypt,

with God in cloud, fire.

The army follows,

Pharaoh’s horses, chariots;

there to take them back.

Moses stretched his hand

over the sea; a strong wind

from God drove it back.

Sea becomes dry land,

(according to the story);

the people pass through.

Egypt’s army came

after Israel. Panic

as their wheels get bogged..

God instructs Moses:

Stretch out your hand, that the sea

returns to its depth.

Israel is saved,

Egypt’s army’s swept away.

So the story ends.

The people feared God

and God’s servant, Moses; glad

God was on their side.

Again, the winners

get to rejoice, the losers

must lament and mourn.

© Ken Rookes 2023

I will not dance with Miriam

I will not dance with Miriam,

nor sing her triumph song.

The winners have written

their history; victorious

but confronting.

Scrape away its many layers:

racism, nationalism, vengeance,

religious superiority, triumphalism,

indiscriminate killing,

no thought for the bereaved.

Not much grace,

even less forgiveness;

and the Almighty is conscripted

to justify the hatred.

It could be set in Palestine,

twenty-fourteen.

No.

I will not dance with Miriam,

nor sing her triumph song.

© Ken Rookes 2014