Entering the Promised Land Without Moses, by Alarie Tennille

Moses Sees the Promised Land Before His Death, by Lesser Ury (b. Prussia), 1928.

Entering the Promised Land without Moses

I was just a child when we left Egypt. Felt
the ground tremor – chariots charging
after us. Run! Run! I couldn’t keep up.
Uncle Joshua yanked me onto his back.
We heard the hooves, the terrible whoosh!
Water rose high in the air! A road cleared
through the sea!  Just as we scaled the bank,
the sea crashed. I shook for three days.

After that, I was frightened of Moses.
What else could he do? But that changed
when he came down from the mountain
with the tablets. Only then did he yell at us.
The elders were afraid, but not me. Something
was different – his hair and beard gone white,
but his face – more than young. He glowed
like an oil lamp –a beacon I knew
I’d follow. I didn’t know it would take
forty years. My faith scorched and dried.

Now it doesn’t seem fair. Here we are
without him. 

Alarie Tennille

This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge.
​
Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com.