i alto
While pricing the market to buy
a shawl, I spot Sarah, mistress
of Abraham. Says my maid: their
maid now cleaves unto her master.
Says she that Sarah watches, too.
Can you conceive it? With the maid!
ii baritone
Eyed yet Abe's little Egypt maid?
Those rising Nile dunes? No rabbi
dares condone such sin. Still, those two
sin not, not before Abe's mistress.
I do declare: Abe's the master!
With luck and one God, I'd be there.
iii contralto
Abraham? Sarah? Praise God they're
both blessed -- blessed with a house, a maid.
The maid, of course, and the master
are always off to beddy-bye.
(That's Sarah: the blind-eyed mistress.)
Now they're having a baby, too.
iv bass
Sarah lost a child; then lost two.
She prayed for a son, then sent their
maid to masquerade as mistress:
A bed of bouncing blankets made
mockery of marriage, thereby
scorning our one Lord and master.
v tenor
Here is what has passed: that master
beat my sweet Hagar and hereto
swears no guilt. His sworn alibi:
her seduction. Lies! Lies! Now their
wild heir reeks vengeance for the maid:
He suicide bombs the mistress.
vi soprano
Now, Hagar -- the new bed-mistress
of our old and limp-love master --
so brave, is no longer a maid.
The desert drizzles dark reign to
bless son Ishmael's garden there:
She sings the world a lullaby.
vii chorus
Barren mistress bore mistress two;
old master, lured, then lingered there;
the maid has waved them all good-bye.
