Next Year, Jerusalem and Dromedary Extension Kit

Next Year, Jerusalem and Dromedary Extension Kit

A pile of hay, dented in the center
where the baby will go,
a couple, hands over their hearts,
heads tilted toward the baby.
Everything facing the baby in the hay,
three men holding golden cups,
ermine or velvet at their throats, a lamb,
a cow, donkey, another lamb,
more hay, the wooden beams to mean
a barn, more hay to scatter
around. The ground beneath them,
dirt paths leading to the barn,
a star, a dome to suggest the sky,
the inn nearby, the women
and men sleeping in their beds,
hay in the pillows, bakery
near the inn, a few more houses,
then the apothecary.
Then shepherds, then sand,
and then the blue-green
Dead Sea nicked with ripples,
dented in spots to hold
the bobbing bodies of swimmers.