You’ve had this experience.
The bookmark is as close to the end
as possible. You want to savor every word
before the last page is turned.
This is pure denouement.
All the action has happened and the
main players are behaving with a nostalgia
that encompasses all history.
Our first family appears in chapter
after chapter. Ghosts we thought we wouldn’t
hear from again receive their blessings.
This is the culmination of so much begetting.
And our main guy, touched by the face of
Our Main Guy, has the final word, and
disappears up the final mountain.
Can you imagine how many times I’ve
used the word mountain in these poems?
There are certain resources which will
tell you how many times any word was
used in a TV show or the Torah.
Repetition is a great tradition, and
when you start this whole thing over
you’d better do it from the top of a mountain.
We are the lucky ones who don’t just
get a view of the promised land from,
get ready for it, the mountain. But we
get to buy airplane tickets, or take the
long walk and put our feet on that promise.
Like an old friend, God buries Moses.
The exact location never reveled, to avoid
a Jim Morrison in Père Lachaise situation.
Do you find that image too funny for
this ending? Let us not forget who we are.
The bookmark is on the table. The last
page is turned only to reveal we have
turned to where we started.
In the beginning of God’s creation of the
heavens and the earth. This isn’t the first time
you’ve seen those words. And it
won’t be the last.
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