Reading the Bible in the Davidic Summer

All these stories about David,
from being youngest,
harpist, sheep herder
to being chosen,
from tripping over someone else’s armor
to a slingshot poised against a sword,
from the love of Jonathan,
and the lunch of Abigail,

to all the sad stories
of his rooftop coveting,
and the crimes that followed,
the cluelessness raising children,
his tears
when they killed each other,
rebelled, died,

even how he needed to be warm
when he was growing old.

I like to think of all these stories,
as old women sitting together
smoothing scrapbook pages and saying,

“Look, Ruth, here’s another one
about your great-grandbaby.”

(below … Brauer, Erich, 1929-. Samuel Anoints David, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57946 [retrieved June 17, 2024]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PikiWiki_Israel_28199_Bible_paintings_in_Castra_center_Haifa.JPG)