Why does he call me Ishmael now
that I’ve been kicked out
of the family tent. First they wanted me
and then, got fed up caring. He took
me up the mountain and lucky
the angel and ram appeared
in the nick of time. I was favored then
and they called me Isaac, and she laughed
the whole Sabbath through and half the week.
But when their spirits fell
and they got tired
and wouldn’t let me out with the shepherds
and their girls, they sent me off
to Hagar’s tent and told me she would be
my mother now.
I’m Isaac, I told the woman, Sarah’s son.
“For me, you’re Ishmael,” she replied.
Ishmael, that’s what he calls me
and in his aging fits, who knows,
he’ll throw us both out into the desert
while he talks to himself about another son,
a perfect Isaac subservient t
