Joseph's Psalm

By Bryant Burroughs

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I feared I would live alone,
unsoftened by a woman’s love.
Then she sang her song
into my crusted heart.
How could one so young and kind
love me, a man of hardened hands?
I imagined our days ahead:
marriage, daughters as fair as she,
sons to be workers of wood like me.
Only you, God, could work
such a wonder of love,
to wrap she and I
together for life.
I thanked you, God, every time
I looked into her eyes.

Then the unthinkable – pregnant!
How can this be?
The one I trusted is with child.
And her story!
That it was you who touched her womb;
that you are the life-giver
of her first-born, not me.
I, her betrothed, wasn’t needed.
I wasn’t needed to give her
our first-born child.
You and she have shamed me.
​
And now your Angel?
“Don’t be afraid to marry her,” he said.
God, wasn’t it enough
that I was betrayed?
That she made me an old fool?
Wasn’t it enough
for me to put her aside
and give her up without punishing her?
Now you ask too much of me.
Do you always give a gift in one hand
and a trial in the other?
I’ll take the gift of loving her as wife,
and I will do so with all my heart.
Help me to be as strong-hearted
with my Son,
the Son you’ve given us.

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Bryant Burroughs is a poet and short story creator whose work has appeared in online literary sites such as Agape Review, Clayjar Review, Pure in Heart Stories and Faith and Hope & Fiction. His first collection of poetry is published as Where Do My Words Go? Bryant lives with his wife Ruth and three cats in Upstate South Carolina.

Bryant's other work on Foreshadow:
The Widow Whose Son Lived (Fiction, July 2022)
The Youngest Day (Poetry, November 2022)
The Widow's Psalm (Poetry, February 2023)
The Leper and the Healer (Fiction, May 2023)
Pearls of Ignatius (Poetry, August 2023)
Song of the Star (Poetry, December 2023)
A Long Walk Toward God (Poetry, January 2024)
All the Dead Heard His Voice (Poetry, March 2024)
Letters from Heaven (Poetry, June 2024)