Obeisance
It was Aaron’s ideato build the golden calf—
certainly not mine.
I’d only begun to imagine
what our New Israel
would be like
without Moses—I’d not
gone so far from the Truth
as to believe
that it rested on
a piece of gold. Not me.
It hurt me to put
my family’s last golden ring
in the pot with the rest;
but the others were dancing.
I watched the ring
melt into the pot
and then got up and left.
It was my husband who started
to sing praises to Baal—
certainly not I.
I’d only begun to consider
what a noble ruler Aaron would make
now that he’d lost his filthy pride—I’d not
lost mine
so much as to pay obeisance
to a piece of gold. Not I.
But when I remembered
my mother’s nose ring
fused fast to that golden Cattle’s rear
I sat down in the dust
and I cried
