Bible Poetry Project -- Jacob and Rachel

Genesis 29.9-20

"And when Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of his uncle Laban, and the flock of his uncle Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of his uncle Laban. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and broke into tears... So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her."

Tending sheep is not such hard work,
lead them to graze and keep watch
against wolves and birds of prey,
birth them, and shear them.
The only troubles are neighbors.
Sometimes they steel your sheep,
sometimes you theirs.
That is the way of things in the land of Haran.
Day in day out, arguing over sheep,
voices rising over tinkling bells and
the songs of birds
that bathe in the dust beside the well.
Singing songs of my family,
cresting the hills with the flocks,
with a dog.
So my days go.
Rachel, she comes to me with
cheese and bread.
Rachel, she comes to me,
we lie in the fields and look up
into the heavens,
and seven years are seven days,
seven days are seven minutes,
seven minutes are seven seconds.
There is no time where there is Rachel.