Nativity, by Devon Balwit

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, by Salvador Dali (Spain), 1967.

Nativity 

The baby Jesus is sorry
                                      to command the sight line,
our eyes abandoning
                                      the ever-shadowy Joseph 
right away,
                                      knowing him a walk-on
to restore Mary’s rep.
                                      We rest a moment
on the mater dolorosa,
                                      a blue horror
hugging the emptiness
                                      where her babe 
would have been
                                      had he not slipped
from her grasp.
                                      Hollowed,
she has chewed
                                      fingers to the quick.
We empathize,
                                      yet can’t wait to find
the tiny imp,
                                      God become man,
perched at the lip
                                      of mystery,
God’s own omphalos.
                                      Look at the Divine
behind, split in two,
                                      light and dark,
(Mani right after all)
                                      wondering what to do
with this foundling.
                                      Lift him up again, certainly,
but how and how high?
                                      Not back to his mother,
already drowning
                                      in an ocean of tears,
or to Joseph,
                                      red-handed in the way of all men
but higher still,
                                      the way of the cross,
out of sight.

Devon Balwit

This poem was written as part of the surprise Christmas poetry challenge.
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Devon Balwit is a poet and educator from Portland, Oregon. She has a chapbook, Forms Most Marvelous, forthcoming from dancing girl press (summer 2017). Her recent poems have appeared in numerous print/on-line journals, among them: Oyez, Red Paint Hill, The Ekphrastic Review, Serving House Journal, The Journal of Applied Poetics, Emerge Literary Journal, Timberline Review, Trailhead Magazine VCFA, The Prick of the Spindle, and Permafrost.