Bethlehem

Bethlehem

Note: In Hebrew, the name Bethlehem literally means "House of Bread"

Who was it from the House of Bread crept out into the darkness,
pitied each hallowed body one by one, scattered the sniffing dogs,
douched like offered wine the pooling red from public pavement,
called home the absent men from barren hills near Migdal Eder--
their alleluias stopped, incredulous, outraged--
the shepherds' angels gone, the angel of death come on?

Who was it then, in answer to such viciousness,
covered the naked breasts of mothers horrified,
eyes and mouths alike agape and catatonic,
their toddling sons, deprived of sustenance and warmth,
thrust coldly into air that, like the guiding star, expired
while Idumean soldiers cut and cursed?

Who told the gentile Magi, hurrying east,
what they had done by mouthing their dilemma,
whose final solution none but Herod knew?
Who carried the minion children to their graves,
prepared the spice that wafted in their wake
and piled high the stones amid the sobbing and the screams?

Who lay all night with those whose habiliments of leather and of armor,
whose whetted swords still keen, dropped unpossessed,
as careless as their shame, as craven and unconscionable as Cain?
Who bore their children, suckled them, cooled their raging fevers,
sent them idly through the streets that still must tremble, tremble,
shaken as Rachel, tremble for the fleeing infant king?