Birthright

Birthright

Jacob stole his birthright,

being clever and tricky

and gets the bad rap on

account of greed,

but what about the sin of Esau

who sold his birthright for a single

bowl of soup?

Sure, at the time

it seemed reasonable

Esau seeing nothing but his hunger

—gut wrenching hunger

but emptiness doesn't always

render us clear of sight—

sometimes it shapes desperate eyes and

snatching hands.

I imagine Esau there at table,

hunger sated, realizing now

the emptiness of the bowl

the emptiness—

what he'd given up…

or maybe not,

maybe Esau simply belched

and excused himself, because

satiation doesn't always

render us mindful of

consequence.

Keep brother stuffed;

he'll never know he's being taken.

And sometimes my own hunger

is the voice I hear telling me to short-sell

for a few immediate spoonfuls…

I have seen the children

of stolen birthrights,

stolen, in the end, by their feeders--

by those who have something

to sell them… and something to gain

from the selling.

And I'm a teacher

for Heaven's sake,

with a bowl of soup

and some hungry students

willing to eat

what I'm dishing up--

indiscriminately--

filling the pits of swollen bellies

with what's been mandated with what

the research says will surely fill them.

And I could spend days feeding

them data soup chock-full of

standards

in a warm broth of best practice

and we could raise the bar

make AYP

incentivize the path

till no one's left behind.

But what if something has been

squandered while I was ladling—

what if they've traded

some blood-right,

some unique mark…

What if we educators

have helped them trade

a birthright

for a bowl of

compliance soup?