Guess who’s coming to dinner?
Let’s skip to the end, I’ll tell you.
It’s a Cloud.
A Cloud is coming to dinner.
The Cloud knows we’ve
made all the sacred outfits.
Even the reversed apron.
What a genius idea, a reversed apron
so food doesn’t stain the design.
Of course, you may have to
bake backwards. I’m sure there are
diagrams for this on the way.
It’s nothing but instructions until
we are strong, and strong and strengthened.
It’s all being assembled now.
Moses himself is installing the
screen door. People are sprinkling oil
on all the pieces.
As the Italians say,
it’s not official until we
sprinkle oil on it.
Let’s get it all in place
before the Cloud comes.
Actually, the Cloud won’t come
until it’s all in place.
That’s the point of all these instructions.
We’re Cloud-proofing the joint.
It’s all very exciting but
no one realizes this dinner party
will last for forty years.
Time enough for a
generation of anointers to
pass into the desert sand.
Time enough for us
to deserve to get where we’re going.
That Cloud is going to stick with us
well past dessert. There’s nothing
like a good meal to make us feel
strong and strengthened.