Poem III: Genesis 21, Amended

Hagar and Ishmael cast out into the wilderness, with the rescue deleted. No voice is heard, no eyes are opened, no well appears.

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14      And she set the child beneath the shrub, a gunshot off, and did not look.

15      And God heard the voice of the lad.

16      His voice was faint, begging for water. The heralds rounded it down.

17       wounded child, no surviving family: here the begats end.

18      And his leg went up to heaven before him. He says it will wait at the gate.

19      Manna came down in crates upon the hungry, as it was written. (It was not written)

20      And the ram in the thicket was withheld; for this was the other son.

21      And they called the cease a fire, and yet still one lamb a day, one lamb a day.

22      Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they were not—

23      were not —   were not —   were not counted.

24      And the well was not opened. And her eyes were not opened. And his shadow stayed upon the stone.

25      And the world said: Let me not look upon the death of the child.