Leah and Rachel Count Sheep, Count Breaths, and: Hagar and Sarai Pose for a 1980s Surrealistic Painting by Nancy Camden Witt, and: Esther and Vashti Discuss King Xerxes in a Rape Counseling Center

Leah and Rachel Count Sheep, Count Breaths

The leaping comes quick in the night but   Jacob comes to me in the daybright—speckled, spotted, striped dreams like   sheep lingering at the well,hoof gripping heel, pulling closer to sleep   while men gather stones to remember

I am the face that should have been   singing to monuments of faith

yours—you who steal your father's gods   You hide invisible blood beneath the saddlewhile Jacob climbs to me bone over bone, flesh   against flesh I give you night

for a handful of mandrakes from   fields, beautiful eyes that never close ata seven-year promise I am hated until   birth Nothing more than inheritance,the flocks fall blinking and   they dance, jump fences, laddersasking me to count the times they   fly over the well's mouth, into my open mouthalmost touch tambourines and angels   wresting free my tongue, woollyof wine, tired from flitting around   from the weight of keeping sleep at bay

Listen to pain—my daughter was raped   when no one was looking, I stole the divinebefore my eyes, my wide helpless eyes   Call her Jacob, idols, our shared blood

The men stood weak   with swords When I die, no one will hear mynaming and calling for death, these   final words, in sorrow, becoming, at his right hand,feuding brothers unable to catch   my breath gathering in quick gasps nowmy hand in yours, my daughter's life   just breaking Now the sheep leapquickly changed, somber-faced clouds   above my creeping toward sky, sisterfor eyes She is all I have left among men   She is my skin, my name, my mirrored wife

Hagar and Sarai Pose for a 1980s Surrealistic Painting by Nancy Camden Witt

Do I face you my sister   or turn away Are we bothveiled eyes cast down   cast away from the windowfrom light bulbs and rain We   try to see I cannot see youpaint a sky upon your breasts   my face for years now in bluebreaking, but even in darkness you   create with your own bound handshang pictures on walls   to forget walls We are not

as knotted by ropes as we think we appear   leaping from chairs, tossing bouquetsto the child in the alley Give her flowers   for food Give her opalsto wear in her hair These veils are   too heavy for handsfor sight These veils keep me   alive, glinting to the greener world

These veils do not let me breathe   where the window reflects waterwhen the children are gone   Does the loving turn your cloakwhite as pearls Would you know us   black as deep sea, your handsas brides if the gowns were   scorching our proper laps, our thighshemmed and torn Touch   our skin as sleeping saviors, justa corner of my skirts and be healed   enough to remember gloves and knives

We are one in our marital vows   If I had wings, they too would foldheavy beneath his blessing No more   laughing among rope and sky,crying in fabric and floors; only tears of joy for the   clasping hands, waiting for the sunmarble pedestal   to go down and still our trembling

Esther and Vashti Discuss King Xerxes in a Rape Counseling Center

Your name means myrtle—   A wedding garland for my headAphrodite's sacred oil   for my white singing veilsso when the king said, bring more wine   cords of linen, silver ringsI made a banquet for women like you   I joined a harem of housewife hopefulsa safe haven for henna and   haggling Unwrap these heavy coveringsthese heaven silks My beauty is your beauty   My arms unravel into your armsStill uncles drag us to courtyards   singe our bodies' musk with myrrhabandon us in this space of women   waiting to be called When he callsI am banished in a flurry of goblets   your crown...