
Naomi Kim
hagar in the desert
But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. Genesis 16:6 (ESV)
i. and she fled from her
five fingers of scarlet brand my cheek
sarai’s handprint, her harsh words
stinging ringing blistering
here i am now
gasping for breath
hot sand burning through my sandals
at every turn, a mirage
there, the water, there, almost there
all the air shivers in the heat
there, water, there
a fever dream
and then—at last—the spring on the way to shur—
i drink and wipe my mouth
God must be blind and deaf and mute
heaven seems distant but
i could slip under the water’s surface
and lose myself in this mirror of the sky
but whose hands are these, that stay me?
whose voice, that greets me, calls me hagar?
hagar, the name even i have almost forgotten?
and then i am weeping in God’s arms
at the water’s edge
God, who whispers promises in my ear,
God, who has seen me
When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. Genesis 21:15-16 (ESV)


ii. she lifted up her voice and wept
it seems not even God has dared
to walk this wilderness,
where we have been cast out to die
what can i do now, but
lay my only child down beneath
this scraggly, tired bush,
its own thin leaves begging for water
what can i do now, but
turn my eyes away
i open my mouth and let
my wordless lament
tear
the sky apart
with
gnashing
teeth, let my weeping
flood
this unforgiving land
what troubles you, hagar?
the whisper is a breeze i breathe in
blessed coolness that soothes the dry throat,
sweet like honey and unforgotten promises
God’s thumb
wipes away my tears
and now, at last, i see:
there,
God’s great big footprint, filled with water
that we may drink, and live
Naomi Kim graduated from Brown in 2021 with a degree English.
