After a hard life
all Jacob wants to do is settle
down
in the Land
of his hard-won inheritance
but he can’t escape destiny its seems
or family patterns
Despite all he should know of favouritism
he favours
And so begins the dominos that will fall
One
by
One
A series of bad choices
and assumptions about fate
The flow of decisions that will have consequences
for generations to come
If only they had not given in to what seemed
predetermined
perhaps it all might have gone differently
And yet, this is the path that leads to the miracles
that leads to us being
Us
so how can we complain?
Are we to learn not to give in when it feels like
the history books have already closed
or
are we being comforted that today’s disasters are
tomorrow’s victories
even if we won’t live to see them?
It feels like a bitter pill to swallow
Fate does
sometimes
Much more appealing to feel we have some measure of
control
over at least our small corner of the world
And that one good choice might lead to the dominoes
tipping
another way
Jacob and Joseph, they let God guide them
Down
into Egypt, where they will die as strangers
and foreigners and
slaves, but all for The Cause
All for the Cause?
In one hand I give my life over to God
into God’s hands I entrust my spirit
In the other hand I
clutch
at whatever I can claim as free will
as agency
Somewhere
women whisper a story of Dina
who went out wandering
and maybe
just maybe
subverted destiny
With one foot I plant myself on God’s Land
unmoving
With the other, I point to lands unknown
and wait
for the wind to tell me
which foot is on the right path.
