Mud is a pearl
In the beak
Of the dove.
Each minute pearl
An offering
To the masonry
Of the nest
Wherein the egg
Conceals a song.

If Euclid wrote
on the topic of forgiveness,
or love, for that matter,
I think he’d admit
that sometimes we approach
our heartache obliquely,
and yet oblique lines, too,
have a way of intersecting.
Even without right angles,
we come together again.

So here I set down my lines,
neither parallel nor perpendicular
to yours, and yet satisfied
as the geometer
that my lines will pierce yours.
So too the birds above earth’s
harsh elements fly, ignorant
of any proof
except that light
follows dark, their wild
intuition heedless
of any axiom except
their knowledge that
the earth’s axis returns,
each year, to spring.

When the jay sang,
did you thank it,
or the stream,
when it caressed your ankles?

Here is beauty
you cannot hold,
but only channel:
like a reed
vibrating in wind,

or like a cliff rose
whose fragrant scent
permeates
the canyon
while her startled seedpods
jostle
wildly
as wind socks.

Wind claws
the forgotten feeder
while a flash
of light startles
at a feeder panel.

When the wind stills,
the feeder stops rocking.
Shadow now
overhangs the feeder
and takes wing,
displacing
the golden plumage
of the sun.

The man hanging laundry heaves
the wet sheet like an offering
onto the line where it hangs,
wet cocoon tugging at the line.
It is just one in a sea of sheets
and pajamas. Here we are,
stitching the world together,
our work held up with clothespins,
spring-loaded. Next week’s laundry
will be piled as high as today’s. We
are not here to change the world,
but here to love. The man next to me
lugs another sheet and wrestles
it into place, and shrugs. Among
the pillowcases, a whiff of alcohol.
And yet, was there ever
a transformation
worth writing home about
without first love?

In the census count
of the skies
each star
is accounted for.
Every star
that ever shone
or burned
now exerts a pull
on its neighbor
that forever shapes
the trajectory
of the stars.
Each life
a link
to the next:
We too are stardust,
carbon shaped
by the breath
of the universe.

In the repurposed
high school gym,
the basketball hoop
hangs,
vertically suspended,
white netting filling out
a flat spider web;
even in summer
the orange outline
of its metal hoop
catching dreams.

hope
visible as breath
on a cold morning

When Christ
entered
the womb of earth,
he did not
enter a cathedral
with shining spires
and painted glass windows
but rather entered
the womb
of a virgin.

Behold the earthenware
of hogan and hut:
shards of clay
fired with light.

Before the birth, it was all angels and light,
but when it came time for the birth,
the wings and accompanying brightness
vanished like butterflies before frost.
I could have used a midwife
or a woman to wash the baby
or at least cook me a bowl of soup.
So when I heard the knock, I rallied.

When Joseph answered the knock,
he saw them standing there,
not all meek and mild
but roughhousing among themselves,
shoving each other for the best view
between the cracks in the wood frame.

They were snotty-nosed, unkempt little beggar boys,
sent away from home to watch sheep
until they grew up and were fit to be trained
in one trade or another.
Joseph could have turned them out.
Just one “Scat” would have sent those boys
scurrying back to their sheepfold.

But even though we had little ourselves,
we knew those boys had less.
If they wanted to share this evening with us,
we would share with them.
Our bread stretched a bit further,
the broth thinned until there was enough for all.

We took a risk letting them in the stable.
They could have stolen our few belongings,
or made a mockery of our poverty,
so little removed from theirs.
And when their unwashed hands cradled our son,
he could have caught cold, or worse.
And yet, something told us that—while there was risk
in letting the shepherd-boys into the stable
(and into our lives) that night—there was even more
risk in shutting them out.