To Be Free

[The setting: Tony, Moses and Aaron are huddled before Pharaoh’s throne conferencing and consensus building on how best to request freedom for the Israelites. Six burly, grizzled, and fierce Egyptian soldiers (who have fixed their searing critical gaze on the huddled men) flank the throne, three on the left and three on the right sides. Pharaoh’s throne room is ornate and bedecked with innumerable colored stones, diamonds, and gold vessels. A thin strip of silk carpet dyed vivid purple running lengthwise across the room seduces visitors from the outer courtyard to the feet of the guards. Golden clamps secure torches birthing effulgent flames. Magicians adorned in gaudy, colorful robes (nervously clasping thick sycamore staffs with bronze tips)  and with faces painted stare stoically at Moses and Aaron. ]

Tony (downright giddy from being in the presence of Moses and Aaron): what up my nuggahs!??? Nah mean? (looking at Moses) What it do BABY BOY????!!!

Aaron (looking at Tony with a look as chagrinned as it is confused, but addressing Moses): Listen, let us be strong. No fear, the Lord shall be with us. Our people…they suffer….they need deliverance.

Moses (battling anxiety): *sigh* Such a domineering presence, what shall we say? What if…what if…..

Tony (sporting a condescending smirk): maaaaane! (yelling) FORGET THAT PUNK!!! What! What! Man, we gonna run up in dere, beat that bast- …oops…beat that bamma DOWNNNN!!! YOU DON’T WANT IT PHARAOH YOU DON’T WANT IT!!!! RG3! RG3! MVP! M-V-P!!! WE FITTIN TO BEAT YOU DOWN CLOWN!!!!     

(Pharaoh’s guards, alarmed by Tony’s bombastic threats begin to advance towards the group while raising their short swords)

Aaron (beside himself with frustration at Tony’s actions, yelling): HOLD IT! HOLD IT!!! Give us a few more minutes! Forgive the idiot in our presence, he is drunk!!!

(Tony rolls his eyes at Aaron. Moses glares at Tony indicating his wish for Tony to tone down his flamboyant behavior)

Moses (palms trembling): okay, before things get worse (looking askance at Tony), lets approach Pharaoh. Our people need emancipation, they need salvation from all these ills that have befallen them at his grotesque oppressive hands!

Tony (blushing and hanging his head): my bad son…..my bad!!!!

-----------------------------/To Be Free; Moses' and Aaron's Appeal to Pharaoh

When the guards of our oppressor fall asleep I drop my pick

resting my back sit on a sizeable rock and stare at the moon

in the distance, in the communal lodging my wife’s voice

soft serenades regarding Abraham’s wealth seducing my sons

into slumber

into slumber delusional

my people don’t believe in Isaac anymore he is fictitious like geysers

in the Egyptian desert I used to see before fainting on tools

(as a boy enduring furtive valleys lush verdant foliage of suffering

in a foreign land barren bland sand endlessly perceived even with strained eyes

searching for freedom, a land of our own

dreaming of rushing rivers

with the appellation home, home given the epithet

of foreign land. Israel is just a colloquial term these days

reserved for those optimistic the minority who don’t contemplate suicide

then Egypt isn’t Egypt even, just land of the dead)

my friends holding me up, lest I dash my head upon a stone

full of melancholy dragging yet again my body exhausted into shade

for reprieve

from the sun we only know as sinister; for we had shades of royalty

yet when we speak of Joseph your guards flay our backs and adjure us

chuckling cruel

to lift and dig and build more and more and nurse our intimacy with searing heat

sweating out the last of our souls, hollow

when we lift our picks, we imagine your face as we shrill

bemoaning our loss of identity

bread with mold rats defiant maggots that disfigure cattle

malnutrition, my children with birth defects preventable

our women shamed and hideous in the eyes of Egyptian maidens

our dissonance with our God; our search for meaning always hellacious…

during our trials we often hear murmuring and obeisance of the privileged:

Pharaoh is god

yet what deity is so maleficent as to steal promise

and hope from a haggard people who have no inheritance but this

does god indeed have a heart so black?

(Please, let us go)

--------------Exodus 7:1-2

And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.