Why Orpah Returned Home and Ruth Stayed

Abstract

When she says Go, she means leave her I honor her desire to love in letting us go You are so afraid to walk away toes unguarded against the ground But while you cling to her, I care for her all the more, loving myself Sit at a man's feet I will sit at his head carrying his gifts of barley-I've born a man's heart in my hands Have you forgotten how to sing? My people taught me prayers I'd forgotten on the road to Judah You say I have been left for dead, I speak the truth-I left her for life When you finish carrying your kings, come home after the famine for a glass of wine We will talk of all our great loves, you and I Stay She knows God will fill us with leftover grain I gathered enough from the handsome man's field but she needs someone to hold her elbow She says, call me Mara, my life is empty as Bethlehem So I drink from another man's earthen jar lower my eyes to receive grain from him and armfuls of wheat I arrive each morning for the threshing I cannot leave a woman dying I cannot leave She has taught me songs of Zion to sing when I am alone about home being so far away fr m this place I walk hungry but she is here beside me If I stay, there is wheat and barley in plenty stacking enough silos to fill the land and I am wandering without a name, seeking stabili y, a woman to love us more than sisters-more than we love ourselves