Hallelujah: A Sestina

A wind's word, the Hebrew Hallelujah. I wonder they never gave it to a boy (Hal for short) boy with wind-wild hair. It means Praise God, as well it should since praise Is what God's for. Why didn't they call my father Hallelujah instead of Ebenezer? Eben, of course, but christened Ebenezer, Product of Nova Scotia (hallelujah). Daniel, a country doctor, was his father And my father his tenth and final boy. A baby and last, he had a baby's praise: Red petticoats, red cheeks, and crow-black hair. A boy has little to say about his hair And little about a name like Ebenezer Except that you can shorten either. Praise God for that, for that shout Hallelujah. Shout Hallelujah for everything a boy Can be that is not his father or grandfather. But then, before you know it, he is a father Too and passing on his brand of hair To one more perfectly defenseless boy, Dubbing him John or James or Ebenezer But never, so far as I know, Hallelujah, As if God didn't need quite that much praise. But what I'm coming to - Could I ever praise My father half enough for being a father Who let me be myself? Sing Hallelujah. Preacher he was with a prophet's head of hair And what but a prophet's name was Ebenezer, However little I guessed it as a boy? Outlandish names of course are never a boy's Choice. And it takes some time to learn to praise. Stone of Help is the meaning of Ebenezer. Stone of Help - what fitter name for my father? Always the Stone of Help however his hair Might graduate from black to Hallelujah. Such is the old drama of boy and father. Praise from a grayhead now with thinning hair. Sing Ebenezer, Robert, sing Hallelujah!