The Adoration of the Magi

~ after Hieronymous Bosch, 1494


An alchemy of vision for the coming times—

Gifts studded with precious ore and pearls, yes,
enough perhaps to pay          their passage into Egypt.

But gifts, too, adorned with scenes of 
                                       sacrifice. 
And bitter myrrh, 

herb used to prepare       the body for embalming. Gold 
from the mines of Africa and Arabia. 
                                     Frankincense, 

burnt in thuribles to accompany 
                                souls to the afterlife.

In the distance, armies ride, combing the countryside
for male infants         under the age of two.
                                               But evil 

already lurks closer. We can see its naked 
form, adorned with gilt and chains 
                                   and a toad-

encrusted bell. Joseph tends to the swaddling 

clothes near a warming fire. 
                             In the fields, 
a wolf devours a human and no one comes
to his aid. 
            Only the woman       
                           
                            with the child on her lap 
looks unperturbed, or she            has understood  
her part. 

          Such a small figure, thrust into the maw
of mortal time. 

                And under a pendulous star, a city
which will endure 
                  countless instances of fire and siege.