WordsOut poems by Godfrey Rust  | sequence The last straw ← 6 of 8 → | home    

The shepherds

It was done plainly enough.
The night sky was a perfect billboard,
the sound effects spectacular. 

Only a few were awake
and in the right place
at the right time when heaven,
unable to contain its amazement any longer,
spilled out momentarily into earth
and explained itself. 

The message was clear as day
but his timing was, as always, surprising,
and the show ran
for one performance only.

Written to introduce the bible reading Luke 2 8-20 in the carol service sequence The Last Straw.