I can’t stop dreams coming in the night
Even while awake I gaze towards light
My mother died my father sighed
And wondered about my dreams

Trusting a man along the way
I found my brothers lying in wait
To banish me from family and home
And send me far away

They could not utter even my name
They cast me down and spat me away
They broke my father’s heart
As they claimed I passed away

My name was written already in stars
But I became a slave and scarred
As flesh in a woman’s lustful heart
Who also cast me away

Her master incensed sent me to Sheol
But still a seer I glimpsed a glow
And blessings bubbled into my dreams
As I wondered about my way

Alas I was given a royal reprieve
And brought to a place beside the King
I served him long and faithfully
But continued to dream my dreams

My heart shut down over twenty odd years
My love poured into cold desert tears
I amassed great power and instilled such fear
While serving at the pleasure of the King

My brothers came their faces forlorn
Begging for bread before the throne
Thinking me Viceroy with scepter in hand
Not Joseph of their family clan

As my father re-dug his father’s wells
Seeing my brothers the waters swelled
Into my steeped-up and hardened heart
I opened to love again

I forgave them all and brought them near
Saved them from their desert fears
Settled them safely amongst their peers
As God intended all those years

• Composed by Rabbi John Rosove