Skip to main content

Do It Yourself Nativity


ISSUE:  Summer 1997
(WOMAN ESCAPING FROM CRECHE)

The evening drizzle leaks
under the 1 X 2’s. Her blue parka
zipped under blue robes.
She wipes mud from the doll’s
eye, turns her back
on the feckless sheep
and knee-high steer.

How did some chicken
cross the road?—That
and its thousand variants—
are the Joseph’s pastimes.
Until Hark the Herald
ends in a power shutdown.

The sky starless; sun-up
a long way east across
the hilarious highway.
Joe, in thermal socks, drifts
off. Push the baby’s cry button.
Let it cry without her.

She’ll have herself a good run
toward what’s left of the lights.
Nearing the outage, which later
she’ll mispronounce as outrage,
she slows for a bird carcass
on the blacktop. Supremely busy,
huge ants dismantle it. One by one
tiny feathers cross the road.

0 Comments

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Recommended Reading