---
title: The angel to Abraham
genre: verse

id: angeltoabraham
toc: "The angel to Abraham"

ekphrastic:
    image: "Sacrifice_of_Isaac-Caravaggio.jpg"
    title: "Abraham, Abraham!"
    link: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham#/media/File:Sacrifice_of_Isaac-Caravaggio_%28Uffizi%29.jpg"

project:
    title: Elegies for alternate selves
    class: elegies
    order: 10
    prev:
    - title: Dead man
      link: deadman
    next:
    - title: Feeding the raven
      link: feedingtheraven
...

| Abraham, Abraham, you are old and cannot hear:
| what if you miss my small voice amongst the creaking
| of your own grief, kill your son unknowing
| of what he will be, and commit Israel to nothing?

| Abraham, you must know or hope that [God][]
| will not allow your son to die; you must know
| that this is a test, but then why
| are you so bent on Isaac's destruction?
| Look at your eyes; there is more than fear
| there.  I see in your eyes desperation,
| a manic passion to do right by your God
| whom you are not able to see or know.

| Am I too late?  I [will try][] to stay
| your old hands, the knife clenched
| within them, intent on ending life.

| Will you hear my small voice amongst the creaking,
| or will it be the chance bleating of a passing ram?

[God]: boar.html
[will try]: i-am.html