Wells Poem by gershon hepner

The wells that Isaac dug became the cause
of envy among all the Philistines,
who claimed he violated every clause
of contracts, reading small print between lines.
Before him, long ago his father dug
the wells, bequeathing them to him in trust,
but Philistines in time began to plug
them all and fill them with their dirt and dust.
Quite systematically the natives capped
the wells of Isaac, whom they also slimed
in songs they sang in sessions when they rapped,
hip-hopping with resistance as they rhymed.

“If we can’t have the wells, ” in spite they said,
“then you can’t use them either.” They were vandals,
far less concerned about their daily bread
than terror and imaginary scandals,
concocting many stories that purported
to prove that Isaac was an interloper
who had no rights and ought to be deported.
They even claimed he was a sexual groper,
reporting that they’d seen him with Rebekkah, sporting
with her in ways considered most indecent.
With relish all the papers were reporting:
“To such a groper who can be obeisant? ”
Though in Philistia natives were all lewd,
they labeled him as an embarrassment,
alleging that his moral turpitude
included acts of sexual harassment,
forbidden by their laws whose civil rights
restricted sexual conduct of each native;
the judges had their bedrooms in their sights,
unscreened, although some lawyers were creative.
In those days, as today, it seems the laws
were legislated by sex Pharisees,
promoting sanctimoniously the cause
of lawsuits brought by sexual harassees.
Isaac only narrowly escaped
from being charged with conduct unbecoming
to gentlemen, accused of having raped
his sister, when he really had been chumming
with his wife. The charges were rejected,
and ones like them are still extremely common,
successful for the Jews when they affected
their enemy called Haman, known as Homon.

King Abimelech said to Isaac: “Go!
I have to ask you now to leave my soil.
My people cannot stand the way you grow
each day more powerful. Indeed you spoil
our culture and economy, competing
with natives who have lived here many years.
You’ve only prospered since you have been cheating:
we think your people are all racketeers.”
Such charges are quite typically made
against minorities as soon as they
begin to prosper; though they have obeyed
the rules, they’re yellow-carded for foul play.

Yet Isaac stayed, and did not dilly-dally,
but dug again the wells that Abraham
had dug before him in the Gerar valley,
and Abimelech’s father in a scam
had seized because he claimed that they were his.
They’d made a covenant, Beersheba
the place where first began the hit-and-miss
peace process, unenforced, without peacekeeper,
an exercise quite surely in futility:
to peace the Philistines were not a party,
and even sharing a utility
like water caused commedia dell’arte.

Isaac gave the wells he dug the names
that Abraham had given them before
the Philistines who’d stolen them defamed
both him and Abraham with great furor,
then dug a new well, saying, “This is Esek! ”
because it caused the conflict to increase.
Just looking at it made the people seasick
and throw up arguments against all peace.
They dug another well called Sitnah, “hate, ”
and since it also led to dreadful quarrels,
it’s hardly a surprise it shared the fate
of others—Philistines lacked any morals.
Then he dug a third well, which succeeded,
Rehoboth, which means “very ample spaces, ”
providing him a foothold that he needed
far more than any military bases,
for with the water he could cultivate
the land, providing for the poor and needy,
prevented from this only by the hate
of Abimelech who had been so greedy.

Then Abimelech went to Isaac and
asserted that he’d like to make a treaty,
with lines that they would both draw in the sand,
and Isaac listened to the man’s entreaty.
They talked and feasted, ate and drank and slept,
and when they woke, like litigants they swore
an oath that Abimelech never kept,
because his only expertise was war.

On that day Isaac’s servants found some water
that issued from the well they had been digging,
and Abimelech said with princely hauteur:
“I surely would not dream now of reneging
on any promises I’ve made to you,
and feel quite sure that you’ll reciprocate.”
The oaths were violated in a few
short moments, right until this very date.
When thinking of peace process in Philistia
while Abimelech seemed to be hardnosed,
Isaac’s eyes, though not yet blind, were mistier
than any realist might have supposed.

3/25/04,6/18/06