Joanne Lowery // Poetry

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Kings

Poised mid-road, ears searching snowflakes,
three deer concentrate on what’s interrupting
today’s journey star to star.

Their uncrowned heads lift and turn,
their princely hooves scatter, white tails
bobbing toward Jesus. But he’s gone
from the manger, snatched by schoolboys
irreverent and daring, tossed out the window
of a red pickup truck on Christmas Eve,
light snow falling. Maybe when

these sages from the East pause to browse
a few bright berries they will find
his plastic shape filling a thicket
apart from the wind, blue radiance
emanating from an imitation head.

And lo, they lower themselves on thin legs,
shield him with three brown sides
from God’s holy world.

Joanne Lowery’s poems have appeared in many literary magazines, including Birmingham Poetry Review, 5 AM, Passages North, Rattle, Atlanta Review, and Poetry East. Her chapbook Diorama was the winner of the Poems & Plays 2006 Tennessee Chapbook Prize. She lives in Michigan.

Date of Publication: 03 May 2007