Crossing

Noah rode the waters in a gopher wood ark,
Moses held his staff and told Yam Suph to part.
The Ark of the Covenant made Joshua’s way,
And Elijah’s old mantle held Jordan at bay.

With what talisman shall I command
The sea to roll back and give me land?
For the chariots of Egypt press this crowd
To the shoreline where the breakers break so loud.

The gulls cry like harpies, cycling through the air
And the wind pulls tangles in our tangled hair.
Children cling to mama’s skirt,
Wooden wheels traverse the dirt,

Till bird sounds are drowned by the charioteer’s lash
Whipping and cracking on horses’ muscled backs.
We know that sound; we are acquainted with that pain.
We’d rather drown than bow beneath the lash again.

Drown me, Lord, drown me in your gathered tears.
Carry me, current me, out past the piers.
Take me down deep, bury me whole,
Dig me into the silt below.

Cover my face with your cool, thick hand
There is no more sky, and no more land,
Only You in me, only me in You,
Floating serenely in a bath of blue.

Moses, Moses, in the water where you float,
With reeds for a curtain, and reeds for a boat,
Bearing a wound in your softest flesh,
A scar that marks you destined for death.

She found you wrapped in your cocoon,
She drew you out and cleaned the wound,
She trampled your basket, woven from reeds,
As a wasted thing you’d never need.

But here at the sea with Pharaoh bearing down,
A ship of reeds would be better than a crown.
Draw me out, Lord God, be a mother to me.
Reach down for the basket that floats in the sea.

Sweep me up before I go too far,
Or water seeps through the weakening tar.
Draw me out with hands both soft and sure,
And lay me down on a distant shore.

No longer a baby to be safely hid
In a woven casket with a little lid,
I lead these children whose faces go ash
At whirr of wheels and crack of lash.

The saved now savior, they look to me.
Save us, Mother Moses, from Pharaoh and sea.
The God of blood and locusts we invoke.
I am I am, who ripped you from the yoke.

Hear our prayer, while their voices fill our ears.
Blow upon the water and dry land appears.
Walls of water guard our backs.
Receive our prayer, drown our tracks.

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