Elegy to Jacob

* dedicated to RB
* dedicated to Michael Jackson, Remember the Time
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeiFF0gvqcc

Oh RB, why doesn't thou just love me? A hee-heeee!!! OOOWWW!!!! J-mon!!! J-mon!!!!
Listen guys, so what I want a 19 year old girl? I don't care what yall say man, she baaaad!!! Oh RB!!! (oh yeah and I aint talking BOUT NO RUNNING BACK!!!!) Listen girl, don't make me Joseph, don't make me bury Jacob!!!! Fall in love with me, please? Please? Pleaaaasssee? Do you Remember the Time when we met at Christlife in Ellicott City Maryland????

+--------------------/Elegy to Jacob

It doesn’t matter to me that Ive
been in Egypt for almost 15 years, by now
Im used to the scorching winds of heartbreak,
the sea of endless
and monotonous sands of loneliness, far
removed from Canaan, thrown
into a pit of the damned by girls who repudiated
my advances, 11 shameless kin enraged by
by my passion for love, because I wore
my heart on my sleeve like
a variegated coat.  I bore the shame they meted
out to me, sold to and treated roughly by coarse
and ungainly Ishmaelites of public opinion,
a caravan of vicious gossip,
scoffing and spitting at a man who couldn’t get
a date in his twenties.
I endured patronizing condescension by Potiphar,
tempted by his wife, buxom and sultry,
 to renounce love
for promiscuous sex but I didn’t yield, imprisoned
by secular society for my impudence,
shackled in dank dungeons of darkness despairing,
staring at a black trajectory of
perpetual singleness, and trying not
to succumb to it all.  Yet, all the while
my soul cleaved to you like a sweet dream-
when I met you, at Christlife in Ellicott City
Maryland, the sun and moon and 11 stars
bowed before me.
Your face, your hazel eyes
full of inspiration are
like the father who begot me, belying your 19 years,
symbolic candle that kept me
warm in winter chained next to inmates,
the wax and wick that keeps one from being
forgotten.
And I thought I was good, your beauty
emancipated me from prison and redeemed me
from everyone’s expectations, and my
confidence soared like a man revered
in all the land,
riding in the second chariot behind Pharaoh.
But over time I realize our 14 year age gap
seems too much for you to bear isn’t it?
I wanted this to work out between us
so badly that in my prayers I fall on your face
weeping and kissing, running
my fingers through your hair implacably,
as though you were dead, as though my
existential angst will bring you back
to me breathing.
 
You imparted hope to me RB,
when all mine ran out two years ago;
for that I love you always.
 Whenever I see your pictures now I think
of Canaan,
when I was 19 just like you and gird with
exuberance (and a coat). I will spend the
next 40 days  embalming your memory,
etching a scar in my spirit for Jacob,
the funeral procession of a 33 year old man
headed to a cave in Machpelah
after seven days of protracted mourning
with all of Egypt in tow.
My 11 brothers flanking me,
collectively trembling at the thought of my
next move….


-------------------Genesis 49:33-50:14
And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days. And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan. And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

----Remember the Time Lyrics

Do You Remember
When We Fell In Love
We Were Young
And Innocent Then
Do You Remember
How It All Began
It Just Seemed Like Heaven
So Why Did It End?

Do You Remember
Back In The Fall
We'd Be Together
All Day Long
Do You Remember
Us Holding Hands
In Each Other's Eyes
We'd Stare
(Tell Me)

Do You Remember The Time
When We Fell In Love
Do You Remember The Time
When We First Met
Do You Remember The Time
When We Fell In Love
Do You Remember The Time

Do You Remember
How We Used To Talk
(Ya Know)
We'd Stay On The Phone
At Night Till Dawn
Do You Remember
All The Things We Said Like
I Love You So
I'll Never Let You Go

Do You Remember
Back In The Spring
Every Morning Birds Would Sing
Do You Remember
Those Special Times
They'll Just Go On And On
In The Back Of My Mind

Do You Remember The Time
When We Fell In Love
Do You Remember The Time
When We First Met Girl
Do You Remember The Time
When We Fell In Love
Do You Remember The Time
Those Sweet Memories
Will Always Be Dear To Me
And Girl No Matter What Was Said
I Will Never Forget What We Had
Now Baby

Do You Remember The Time
When We Fell In Love
Do You Remember The Time
When We First Met
Do You Remember The Time
When We Fell In Love
Do You Remember The Time

Do You Remember The Time
When We Fell In Love
Do You Remember The Time
When We First Met
Do You Remember The Time
When We Fell In Love
Do You Remember The Time

Remember The Times
Ooh
Remember The Times
Do You Remember Girl
Remember The Times
On The Phone You And Me
Remember The Times
Till Dawn, Two Or Three
What About Us Girl

Remember The Times
Do You. Do You, Do You,
Do You, Do You
Remember The Times
In The Park, On The Beach
Remember The Times
You And Me In Spain
Remember The Times
What About, What About...

Remember The Times
Ooh... In The Park
Remember The Times
After Dark..., Do You, Do You, Do You
Remember The Times
Do You, Do You, Do You, Do You
Remember The Times
Yeah Yeah
Remember The Times