Understanding the King Holiday: A Reflection and a Poem
Star Over Bethlehem
Photo By: Flickr/Waiting For The Word
Darkness came in relative silence
to a cold, gray sky. Beneath it,
a man, tired from too many miles
of travel, walked a dusty road.
His wife straddled a donkey.
She was uncomfortable,
about to give birth. The couple
stopped as soon as they could.
Having been ordered by the king
to report to their ancestors’ homes
to pay taxes, they travelled miles
and miles to the appointed spot.
Other travelers—hungry and thirsty, too—
stopped where the couple did,
huddling in an animal shed,
the best places to sleep already gone
to those who arrived earlier.
Curious eyes of many strangers
watched that woman in her labor.
About midnight, the teen-age mother
gave birth to a boy, wrapped him in rags,
nursed him, hummed softly.
Drought-weary shepherds herded sheep
in nearby fields of sand,
were discouraged at yet another night
with no trickle of rain.
So imagine their surprise
as the sky revealed an awesome star.
first published in Facing a Lonely West
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About the Author
A former English teacher, Helen Losse is the author of ten collections of poetry, including A Flower More Enduring (Main Street Rag, 2021). Her poems have been anthologized in Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VII: North Carolina, and Kakalak 2014, nominated for a Pushcart Prize and for a Best of the Net award. She is Poetry Editor Emeritus for The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature and a former Associate Poetry Editor for Kentucky Review. She is married and has two grown sons. A Christian her entire life, Helen entered the Catholic Church on Holy Saturday in 2015 to grow closer to Jesus.
Social Media links:
Blog: Windows Toward the World https://helenl.wordpress.com/
FB: https: https://www.facebook.com/HelenLosse/
MSR Bookstore: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product-tag/helen-losse/
