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Sacrifice
I.
Abraham
Long
years, and I found favor
In the sight of the Lord, who brought me
out of Ur
To
where his promise lay,
There
with him to confer
On Justice and Mercy and the appointed day
Of
Sodom’s ashen fate;
For me he closeted sweetness in the date,
And
gave salt its savor.
Three
promises he gave,
Came like three kings or angels to my door;
His
purposes concealed
In
coiled and kerneled store
He planted as a seedling that would yield
In
my enfeebled years
A miracle that would command my tears
With
piercings of the grave
"Old
man, behold Creation,"
Said the Lord, "the leaping hills,
the thousand-starred
Heavens
and watery floor.
Is
anything too hard
For the Lord, who shut all seas within their
doors?"
And
then, for his name’s sake
He led me, knowing where my heart would
break,
Into
temptation.
The
whole of my long life
Pivoted on one terrible day at dawn.
Isaac,
my son, and I
Where
to Moriah gone.
There followed an hour in which I wished
to die,
Being
visited by these things:
My name called out, the beat of gigantic
wings,
Faggots,
and flame, and knife.
- Anthony Hecht
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