Joseph's Brothers

A new commandment:
Though shalt not offer brothers
and sisters on the altar.

In a romcom, the rabbi is
the younger of two siblings
more handsome, more eloquent,
a bachelor, pulls all the
virgins in the synagogue.

His older brother taller, stronger,
and yet less intelligent,
stuck in an unhappy marriage,
and pathologically unpopular.

This is a familiar story—
mirror of thousands of homes,
confessions of thousands of mothers
eavesdropping
dropping the wrong fruit
from the wrong tree.

I remember my sisters and the
Kingdom Hall we went to as children.
I remember their eyes locked with mine
while I read the Bible in front
of the congregation for the first time
as if to assure me I will
make it through the end of the verse
alive.

I imagine what our lives would be like
without those cold walls,
without those fancy clothes and
leather shoes, without those eyes
gawking at our hair, our face,
our bodies.

A new commandment:
Though shalt not offer brothers
and sisters on the altar.