Benjamin

What is it that a father finds in one 
     to favor over others?
Did Isaac know what grace was his
     in primogeniture,
          while Ishmael wandered?

Did Esau find
     his father’s way not right 
And think the issue
     of the pottage just 
          a specious way
               to further predestination—

To choose my father—

He passed along that 
     odd selection too,
So Joseph was his pet—

I heard him say that Rachel 
     was his love,
          and saw her eyes 
               in Joseph’s face,

I know such ancient tales 
     of brothers—
     one chosen,
          the other not, 
               inexplicably,

And like Abel’s brother 
     wish I knew
          why God must choose.