Jacob and the Angel, by Sarah Law

Jacob and the Angel, by Jacob Epstein (UK, b. USA), 1940.

Jacob and the Angel

He knows he has done wrong
and this is judgment:
the massive figure hits him

in the jaw –
bare shoulder –
solar plexus –

winded, he staggers back 
–  the wall rejects him steadily –
and raising his hands to shield himself

tries to summon courage –
the salt grit in his blink and swallow
all he can muster.  It thwacks him again –

he howls his answer No!
(which is no answer)
and his shadowy antagonist

  – the sound of endless rockfall –
pummels him into the night.
But Jacob has his vision

blistered with sin as it is
and wills himself to wrestle
this dark god. They blunder

into each other; muscles bulge
and heat steams over them –
they’re brothers fighting

for their birth; survival’s 
jugular struggle (moon blinks
at the scene’s punched cavities).

It’s only when the sun’s slim
glimmer ushers change that
his angel holds him.  Jacob

and his great sustaining angel –
captured as one sculpture
in the dawn’s soft rain. 

​Sarah Law

Sarah Law is a poet and tutor living in London, UK. She has published five poetry collections, the latest of which, Ink’s Wish, was shortlisted for the East Anglian Book Awards in 2014. She’s interested in artistic representations of angels, among other things. Follow her on Twitter @DrSarahLaw