Elisha asks, "Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?"—Anna A. Friedrich

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Stack Takeover: We’ve invited Anna A. Friedrich to take over our Substack for two weeks to share her latest poems that examine the lives of the prophets Elijah and Elisha through a poetic lens. Read more on her Substack, Monafolkspeak and in her new book Under the Terebinth.

I told them twice
I knew, today
would mean an end
to being Servant of Elijah— 
          (he was more of my Naomi)

Together, companions on the run,
from God’s own house
to Jericho—a crumbling
of all I’d known, as prophet-child—now
my second orphaning.

He parted Jordan's
waters with his rolled up robe—
why

is everything reduced 
to twos—the water split,
my own robe, too,
now torn and all his sacred
stories flooding in—

     Two bulls bled out, prepared,
     How long will you waver between two
     opinions? he shouted from the altared
     mountaintop—

    Twice, Yahweh asked (he would not
     let me forget) Elijah! What are you            
     doing here?

     Did ravens come
     two times? I can’t remember—
     The widow’s jar and jug,
     were they a pair
     of alabaster vessels—
                    like us? My Father!

My Father! I am undone
poured out, a double portion—mine,   
and heavy as I kneel
at Jordan’s edge to see

your cloak, there
suddenly (reaching for what
has fallen, let me follow)—

only the firmament divides
us now—I am alone
bound up

in just one question.

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Anna A. Friedrich is a poet and arts pastor in Boston, MA. She shares an original poem every Wednesday morning at annaafriedrich.substack.com, and her first full-length poetry collection, Under the Terebinth, is now available (from Wipf and Stock).