Rahab
Joshua 2
I was a woman of stone and stars
And ran an inn on Jericho's outer wall
Satisfying my lodgers' uncaring desires.
My arms were always open.
When Joshua's spies snuck in,
I hid them behind stacks of flowering
Flax, yellow stars on my roof.
Three days later, I lowered them
To the street below with a scarlet cord.
Bleeding from my window, a radiant
Umbilical cord for my holy offspring
Stretching down to Boas and David
And then to the baby swaddled
In the walled town of Bethlehem, a star
Of wonder above his stone manger.
Philip C. Kolin is the Distinguished Professor of English (Emeritus) and Editor Emeritus of the Southern Quarterly at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has published over 40 books, including twelve collections of poetry and chapbooks. Among his most recent titles are Emmett Till in Different States (Third World Press, 2015), Reaching Forever (Poiema Series, Cascade Books, 2019), Delta Tears (Main Street Rag, 2020), Americorona: Poems about the Pandemic (Wipf and Stock, 2021) and Evangeliaries: Poems (Angelico, 2024). He also has poems included in Christian Century’s Taking Root in the Heart (Paraclete, 2023).
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