Who am I to weep at a
supposed grave of a
dead ancestor?
Yet tears fall—thick and sweet—at your
blue velvet bier,
beloved RachelLavan's younger daughter and Jacob's beloved wife second wife (after he is initially tricked into marrying her older sister, Leah). Rachel grieves throughout her life that she is barren while Leah is so fertile. Ultimately, Rachel gives birth to Joseph and dies in childbirth with Benjamin. Rachel is remembered as compassionate (she is said to still weep for her children), and infertile women often invoke Rachel as a kind of intercessor and visit her tomb on the road to Bethlehem.,
while outside
boy soldiers, in green
stand guard.
Tears for them
and for me
a great flowing river of tears.
Yours, Rachel, remembered
for so long
and mine, still fresh,
mix
and overflow,
for a moment,
the dry banks
of separation.
