Hair Is It

 

 

Of such breathtaking beauty

The women were sure to adore:

Of prestigious royal linage

And so much more.

 

Third son of his kingly father

And fairest of them all:

The apple of his father’s eye

The first name he’d call.

 

He had a beautiful sister

Whom a brother lusted after,

After she rebuffed his advances

He eventually raped her.

 

 

It took about two years

To avenge his sister’s rape,

At a party invitation

His brother took the bait.

 

There his brother died

But not by his own hand,

His servants were the assassins

In accordance with his plan.

 

Out of fear of his father

He ran away to Geshur,

There he stayed three years

Returning to Jerusalem after.

 

After two years of no contact

With his father he was reconciled

But this peace never lasted

As his father’s rule he denied.

 

He made himself a judge

And began to canvas the people

And promised them much

If he became king of Israel.

 

His followers grew steadily

And his father had to flee,

By treason he claimed the throne

But that ended in a tree.

 

  

While riding under a tree

 He was entangled by his hair

And while hanging from that tree

He was executed in mid-air.

 

David was king again

But great was his grief for Absalom,

His army’s morale was low

Though the battle they had won.

 

Much was going for Absalom

And he was flying high in the air,

However, pride goes before a fall

And his fall was his lovely hair.

 

 

Absalom’s hair was his glory

Samson’s hair was his strength,

However the problem for them both

Was not in their hair’s length.

  

Absalom’s eyes were out of focus

Samson’s eyes were forced out

But as to the cause of their blindness,

None of us should be in doubt.

 

It was not the hair but the eyes

Both of these men were blind,

Because they saw no further than self

They both ended up in a bind.

 

The moral of this poem is:

People may focus on your hair

But what you see is critical

Hence you need to take care.

 

 

Samson saw Delilah

Absalom saw his father’s throne,

The Bible is replete with similar;

These were not alone.

 

What is it that distracts you?

Conduct your personal quiz,

For you it may be something else

But for some, hair it is.

 

Stewart Russell © February 2019