Deborah Confides in God
Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
--Judges 5:24
Deborah: I never meant.
I never planned. Never
my intention oh Lord
to love her.
God: For love to be the geese
flocking, the breeze
that whispers the tops of the trees,
the bench on the path, has always been
my intention.
You break with me
when you break with love.
Deborah: She is sworn
to another, oh Lord.
Under the torn and tattered edges or the wide
sweeping waves of the palm,
I am your judge. The law
endures.
God: Who bears
Jonathan’s robe to David?
Who holds out your open palm?
Of the steadfast land, the resounding sky,
the great bursts of the star hydrangea,
mine are the laws.
Deborah Bacharach is the author of two full length poetry collections Shake & Tremor (Grayson Books, 2021) and After I Stop Lying (Cherry Grove Collections, 2015). Her poems, book reviews and essays have been published in journals nationally and internationally including Poetry Ireland Review, New Letters, Poet Lore and The Writer’s Chronicle among many others, and she has received a Pushcart prize honorable mention. She is currently a poetry reader for The American Journal of Nursing, SWWIM, and Whale Road Review and a writing instructor, editor, and tutor in Seattle. Find out more about her at DeborahBacharach.com.
Amethyst Review 