Rachel’s Request
of Laban
and suffered more to be wed
to the love of my life.
You’ll forgive me father if here
I sit because the blood of mine
now flows as a woman.
You have taught me oh so much
throughout the years but here I sit
on this old saddlebag
from which, you know, I cannot move
for, as a woman, it’s my time.
But deeds and creeds you seek
of fear my husband dear did take
perchance from you and, if you find
them hidden in a tent,
that person will by agreement
suffer death. I waited fourteen
years to be with this man
suff’ring sister’s indignity
and now, my father, you, I think
should know the time of woman
because from you I’ve learned so much.
Yet now I cannot move from here
because of womanhood.
Pray father now, entrust in me
the wealth of your own children dear
for whom I’ll always weep
yet one of them will save us all
if now you let me stay right here
because of womanhood.
December 2021
About this poem: I have read Genesis over and over and I never tire of it, but I have always felt each character had a backstory to tell. This poem is an attempt at the backstory of Rachel, Jacob's second (but first in love) wife. When they left her father Laban to go out on their own, Rachel had stolen some of her father's idols unbeknownst to Jacob. Jacob told Laban he could kill anyone who had them because he was sure no one had. Rachel was why he worked so long for Laban in the first place, so if he had lost her... Anyway, she pretended she was on her period and sat on some saddle bags while her father searched her tent, excusing herself from getting up. This is a poem from her point of view with a few biblical Rachel things thrown in (like the New Testament slaughter of the innocents and Rachel weeping for her children). These stories resonate through our culture, but sometimes the characters need some rounding out to make them real to us now. That's what I like to do with some of my biblical poems like this.
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