After These Things

"After these things, God tested Abraham." -- Genesis 22:1

"But race is the child of racism, not the father." -- Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

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"After these things"

    -- that's what the book says --

that it was "after these things"

    that Abraham

    thinking he heard a voice from God

    determined to kill his son.

And they went on,

    the two of them,

        together.

Together,

    inextricably bound,

    violently bound,

Bound together.

After these things.

And each time

    after these things happen

I think the same tired thoughts

    of grief

    and power

    and powerlessness

    and the end of useful words.

But words matter

    (or I do not)

Names matter:

    Philando Castile

    Alton Sterling

Naming matters:

    Black lives matter.

After these things

    after Orlando

    after Dallas

    when it is too late to matter 

    for the bodies sacrificed 

    to gods of hate and shame and fear

after these things

    I wonder

    if --

        without some sort of miraculous intervention

    Abraham can ever learn

to put down the knife.

To put down the gun.

And I imagine Abraham

    on his death bed

    lonely

    no conversation with his son for years

    (bound, bound, inextricably and violently bound)

    lonely

Praying one last time

For one last miracle

That future generations --

     inextricably bound

     rival offspring

would not wait for

    after these things.