Stan Galloway’s most recent poem to appear here was Benjamin’s Sack (December 2014).

Rachel Announces Jacob’s Arrival
By Stan Galloway

“New man at the well today,” said Rachel, panting,
bursting in the house in early afternoon.
“He’s Rebekah’s son, he says,” and Laban must have
gone back in his mind across the decades to
the day his sister left to wed her fortune, silent
and as good as dead ’til now. “He’s dashing, Papa,
like a statesman or a prince. The other shepherds
look with awe on him. And strong–he rolled the stone
alone and watered all our sheep before the others
took the bucket for their flocks.” She paused and Laban
hurried through the door with Rachel after, thinking
she had said enough–the kiss he gave, his lips
on hers, so bold, so gently firm, that brought her own
to life in ways she’d never known, with threads she could not
see attached and tugging at so many places
deep inside–the kiss was better left unsaid.