Mosaic

1. THE SACRIFICE On this tile the knife like a sickle-moon hangs in the painted air as if it had learned a dance of its own, the way the boy has among the vivid breakable flowers, the way Abraham has among the boulders, his two feet heavy as stones. 2. NEAR SINAI God's hand here is the size of a tiny cloud, and the wordless tablets he holds out curve like the temple doors. Moses, reaching up must see on their empty surface laws chiseled in his mind by the persistent wind of the desert, by wind in the bulrushes. 3. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT We know by the halos that circle these heads like rings around planets that the small donkey has carried his burden away from the thunder of the Old Testament into the lightning of the New. 4. AT THE ARMENIAN TILE SHOP Under the bright glazes Esau watches Jacob, Cain watches Abel. With the same heavy eyes the tilemaker's Arab assistant watches me, all of us wondering why for every pair there is just one blessing.