Who has discerned the way
Of a mother with a child?—
The defining feature of domestic life
And altogether wild…

Teach me, oh God,
To number my days…

The land is renewed
But my hands keep growing older
Our lives burn; the flower fades;
The grass grows; our embers smolder…

If you bring the salt water,
I'll bring the promise,
So wash my heart in the brine
That turns stoics into Psalmists…

Guiltless hands dripping blood-red,
Caught like a bug in a web—
While us sheep were so busy slaughtering lambs,
Our Shepherd broke in with a battering ram…

As history and ordinary sinners
Began to spread the news
Of a rabbi who would become
The most influential man of all time,
An evil king was trapped in his bedroom
With a vengeful woman and a terrifying question…

After long dusty miles,
The virgin catches her breath.
Exhausted, she smiles,
And leans back on Joseph’s chest.
She conceived, she labored,
She held her Son at her breast,
Then laid him in a manger,
Swaddled, to give him some rest…

Like a backward-aging bride,
You're beautiful tonight,
But in decades from today,
You'll be more lovely in my sight…