Epiphany (We Are Jerusalem)

Early Christian fresco of King Herod's slaughter of the Innocents in the
hypogeum of Santa Maria in Stelle, Italy. (De Agostini/Getty Images)

"When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him..." Matthew 2:3

Epiphany

Listless lament of

Unpredictable monarchs

Stoked by derangement 

We try to regret

Them, their fierce, lonely voices

With wild objections

To the beautiful

To life, the hope of the stars

The thing we would choose

If we could, if we

Would. If power were ours, life

Not helpless, hijacked

By mad, evil kings

Like the ones we've learned we need 

For our innocence

Too bad, we say, and

We want to mean it. But we

Are Jerusalem

We cannot mean what

Well-trained fears cannot believe

Hearing, we tremble.