Two Brothers - Joshua Davis

Brother-mine, I’ve missed you.

Your beard, it grows so long

Your eyes are wetted mirrors and I’ve known you all along

Do you recall our laughter?

The boyish games we’d play?

As lion cubs we’d brawl and boast

At once hunter and his prey

Oh sweet brother: hunter and prey

I was with you on the hillside, I did not understand

Felt the burden of wood upon my back

The threat of the blade in his hand

Bound and splayed upon the altar, that dry and cloudless day

But as he reached to strike the match

I looked the other way

Oh sweet brother, I’ve looked the other way

Father of fathers- oh, Ibrahim- hear our humble words

As we bind you in this silken cloth

Anointed with sweet oils and herbs

And shoulder your body down into the tomb

And lay you supine upon a stone

We the sons of Abraham, two wings of one bird

Together and alone

I heard you in the wilderness but I did not understand

Why you’d been released afar and promised many lands

When you cried I ran for water, and I drank ‘til I could burst

And with greed and glut I cursed your name

When I could not quench the thirst

Oh sweet brother, I did not quench your thirst

I’ve whispered your name with each drawing of my bow

And releasing every arrow, it was our father’s name I spoke

And as if by magic, the fogs and winds withdrew

You were there behind me as the birds were cleaved in two

Oh, sweet brother the birds cleaved to

Father of fathers- oh, Ibrahim- hear our humble words

As we bind you in this silken cloth

Anointed with sweet oils and herbs

And shoulder your body down into the tomb

And lay you supine upon a stone

We the sons of Abraham, two wings of one bird

Together and alone

Though our past is fraught with heartache

And our futures are unclear

Today I kneel before you and I wash your feet in tears

In the name of our good father, brother, we have done our best

To bear his holy promise as wings, two sons abreast

We shall meet once more in Machpelah

Sing with me before we part

Great Seeds of Many Nations and boys, of a father’s shrouded heart

When our mouths are bound in gauze with no more need for words

Let us meet once more in death — as a miracle of birds

Oh sweet brother: a Miracle of Birds