Jacob and Esau; Poem for 6th Sunday after Pentecost

Poem for 6th Sunday after Pentecost.                         Jacob and Esau

The Hebrew Testament Story from Genesis for this coming Sunday is about the struggle between the brothers Esau and Jacob. I thought of my brother and I. The market place alluded to in the poem was in San Salvador, the Capital of El Salvador, and the maid or cook, would take us us two boys, three and four, to the Market Place to give my mother a chance to take care of our younger sister alone, or my mother would take us to give my sister a nap. I had red hair and chubby cheeks and it was considered good luck to rub a copper headed child and my bother had black hair and was thin and athletic. “Ay que Lindo! is Spanish for “Oh this is beautiful” and “Ay guapo!” is “Umm, . . . Handsome!”

Jacob and Esau

Looking at my brother and wanting to be,

him, instead of the quiet, awkward one,

I was turning out to be ,as second son,

in his shadow, one whom others didn't see.

When my mother would take us downtown,

market ladies would laugh, “Ay que lindo!”

rubbing my red hair for luck. “Ay, guapo!”

they'd sigh, envious for him as their own.

Time came to move away from his shadow,

yet, packing that shadow with me, unknowing

he carries mine deep into his own fate going:

brothers locked together as distance did grow.

When he died, I sighed, “What a waste!

To not stop competing, to give love a taste!”