Redemption

                                             Parshah Chayei Sarah
                     

They came to bury their father
Isaac the son of Abraham's wife Sarah
whose breasts no longer held milk
when she birthed her son. And Ishmael
whose mother Hagar stood tall, young,
 and sassy when she birthed Abraham's
older son. One a wife, the other a handmaiden,
domestic help.Two boys separated by tension
and  the fear of infighting for a coveted place
in family history. Yet God made clear
each boy's legacy. Abraham, the father of both,
carried out his  wife's demand.
Isaac stayed, Ishmael  left.
Time shifted like the sand of the desert.
When their father died both sons came
to bury their father, to lay him to rest
in the cave of  Machpelah.
The  past is buried for that time and place.