CHRISTMAS CARD
          FROM MY MOTHER 

     Shepherd, your eyes are
     so painly deep
           the way you stare:
     lamb in your arms,
     staff crooked at the shoulder.

     As if God's own coming
     were something sorrowful
     to be wept at...
           or is it both
                adoration and
     intensity of the heart that
     shows itself -- from the lost
     lone corners of the soul...?

     ... the sign of angels
     to be met wondrously,
     with terrified joy...
     hopefully begging over
     all your rough, wooled edges
          once locked in sleep:
                    now
     born free to praise again,
          beyond -- with light.