And the Lord said to Moses: "Hew for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones. And I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
Like the first ones
This isn’t Moses’ first rodeo.
He’s been up the mountain.
His hands still chafed from
the hewing of the first stones.
Whose punishment is this
that he has to do it again?
The builders of the calf or
the one who threw the stones?
the words that were on the first tablets
What happened to the rubble?
The broken stone shards.
The pieces of the first set
of ten commandments.
The original artifact.
Did they gather them like
pieces of the Berlin Wall?
Did they skip them
across the Dead Sea?
How many of today’s feet
have unknowingly kicked
a piece across the desert?
the first tablets, which you broke
This is how parents speak.
Reminding children of their sin
driving it home as only words can
as the punishment is doled out.
It’s more for us than for them.
They know what they did.