work in progress

Incarnation

-Hebrews 2:14

Out of the creeping undergrowth of manuscripts

words line themselves with the body of the page

immaculately. Leaving decorated margins

of our modest codex, we ache to glimpse the enraptured

end of the art of faith. In the font's innocent concavities

we imagine bold faces of eager messengers.

At the edge of improbable translation, we are assuaged

by incredible epiphanies cradling

in paperback covers.

                                  Herod's night raiders read

Bethlehem right. The local chapter of Moloch

plots the setting of the star. Mythology

parses into facts: angels, shepherds, feeding trough -

where, in this part of the prologue,

the Death Eater's mother paraphrases His gurgles to the kneeling kings.

(c) John Robert Lee  from work in progress.

(c) Photograph by John Robert Lee.