Prayer for a Would-Be Pharaoh After Exodus 14:28
- by Margaret Anne ErnstI hope you don’t just loseI hope that every wall you builtcrumbles into the stardustthat we’ll rub on each other’s foreheadsnext year to say, “We are beloved”I hope you don’t just losebut that the only voicesyou’ll be allowed to listen toare the testimonies of every farmworkeryou tried to deportwhile you learn to chop tomatoesand to say thank you to the earthI hope that if there is a helland if you are destined for itthat it looks like standing at the weddingof every trans and queer personyou permitted to be deemed unhumanwhile you licked your lipsclean of your own lecherous sinsI hope that this place is not hellbut recognition,that there is a g-dwho changed everythingyou tried to do to usinto a seedsuch that every vile orderand every hotheaded tweethave become the spiceswith which we will make jambalayaon the day you fallfrom powerI hope you will know there still is invitationto you, and everyone who rides in your chariotsinto the feeling of what “together” means.Into the feeling of what “future” is.Into the hospitality of “never too late,”to live as if this world is for all of usAnd I hope, Mr. President, if you drownin a sea of your makingit is watered with repentance tearsbecause we are too beautifulfor even you not to cry over.But if none of this comes trueif you remain committedto smallness and fallacyas your daily bread,I pray that you get out the wayso that we may forget you.So we no longer wake with the bitter tasteof your slurred names for us in our throatsso that forever more all that we tasteis hopeis possibilityis peace.