I stood before your statue
Studying your face and your posture
In December light
Eyes gazing heavenwards
Undisturbed regular features
Hands together in perfect peace
And I couldn’t help feeling a gulf
Between this figure and I
How could you relate to me, I thought
And I – to you?
Yet I stood there still as the dusk fell
And the shadows began to move across your face
That part of winter nature
That makes everything look less certain
And then I saw it
A movement under your chin
So clear in the fading light
You swallowed a lump in your throat
And in that place
You let me see you in the times
When your pregnancy astounded Joseph
When you had to flee to Egypt
When Joseph died
When Jesus was dying
I stood there transfixed
As the darkness enveloped us both
And as we both swallowed a lump
I no longer felt the gulf