1.
That day at last again
the showing.
Now we examine, evaluate,
what has come to be shown,
come to be seen.

2.
I guess they used the gold
to feed and take care of
the Child and themselves.
The incense I imagine they burned,
watching the smoke drift off
the way prayers do,
turning into the sky.
What did they do with the myrrh? 

3.
Now it’s time to flee to Egypt,
the big country called
the rest of the year.
Big river, stone buildings,
statues of improbable gods
so strange they must be real.
Breakfast lunch and supper.
One way streets.

4.
I don’t want to be relevant
I want to be right.
Slowly what we have learned
turns into summer.
All the children are grown up,
at this distance hard to tell
one from another.
We’re all adults now,
we are who we are.
That is what summer means.

5.
And that’s why so many years in Egypt,
so many months from now
to solstice, when the sun
comes in the front door.
He whispered this to me
before he went away.

6 January 2021