WordsOut poems by Godfrey Rust  | sequence The last straw ← 8 of 8 | home          

The flight into Egypt

A fairytale would end here
but this is not a fairytale. 

The hunt begins
for this intruder
who has disturbed the balance
of heaven and earth. 

Herod is only the first
to make him a refugee,
the infant boys of Bethlehem
only the first blood spilled
in the bloody pilgrimage
of heaven’s exile
living rough and dying rough
from the borrowed stable
to the borrowed tomb.

Written to introduce the bible reading Matthew 2 13-18 in the carol service sequence The Last Straw.