Monday, January 6, 2014

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.


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