Jacob’s Ladder

Poem written by Em Meuller, used with permission from the author

This week we read about the
time Jacob lay his head upon a
rock
for a pillow and dreams
a ladder going up up up
through the sky to god’s home
and angels — messengers of god
going up and down, up and down.
In the morning when he wakes up he says
“God is in this place and I
I did not know” and the angels are our mothers
and fathers and their mothers and fathers all the
way back to the first climber out of the muck and all
our children — the future — up and down, up and
down, present to us, the not, and we — you and me
alive right now — hold the ladder here, in this
place.