Gave a reading from my new book at The Seminary of the Immaculate Conception today. The crowd favorite was “Miriam,” and so I include that poem in today’s blog post. Miriam was the sister of Moses, the one who looked over him as he floated down the Nile, away from his family of origin and towards a great and heroic destiny.
“Now a certain man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, who conceived and bore a son. Seeing that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took a papyrus basket, daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and putting the child in it, placed it among the reeds on the river bank. His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.” (Ex 2:1-4)
The river joined two women’s gifts that day.
My baby brother floated in between
the strength to give a treasured son away
and courage of adoption. Crouched, unseen,
my long hair blending with the river reeds.
I bit my hand, afraid I’d intervene,
and shout to Pharaoh’s daughter of his needs,
the way laughter could always soothe his cries,
the way he played with mother’s wooden beads.
And as I watched, I slowly realized
it was as hard for that Princess to choose
to take him; as for us to compromise—
guarding his innocence from evil’s sway.
The river joined two women’s gifts that day.
—Annabelle Moseley
from A Ship to Hold the World and The Marionette’s Ascent