Prophetess of timbrels and praises,
hot desert wind blew your hair
Older than him, wiser perhaps?
You remember the Nile
and the basketed life – protected.
You watched him and wondered.
Six hundred thousand people,
and he led them.
You heard their petitions—
they complained.
He had faults,
sometimes the hot breath
of the desert sapped his very soul.
The bush burned and only
his eyes saw.
Why? is asked in defiance,
to stand in the shadows
and not hold the banner.
The answer, You were not called.
White death is in the mirror.
Aaron is ashen.
Watcher of the Nile,
beg forgiveness.
Only life-giving repentance
can flow and basket a soul.
Lorraine Jeffery has won prizes in state and national contests, and published over a hundred poems in journals including Ibbetson Street, Kindred, Halcyon, Clockhouse, Canary, Rockhurst Review, Naugatuck River Review, Orchard Street Press, Healing Muse, Irreantum, Exponent II, and Bacopa Press. Her first book is When the Universe Brings Us Back.
