catholicPittsburgh.org

by Eileen DiFranco
of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

No phantom labor was hers.
The stainless white veil lay
in the straw while she
sweat and groaned
through naked pain.

No angel midwives attended his birth.
Heeding her cries,
Bracing her shaking legs,
the women first held
the Body of Christ in their hands.

No spirit babe was he;
his head, molded by the inner
contours of her body;
the hot dampness of his body,
slippery with birth water and her blood.

No magic surrounded this delivery; but
joy and wonderment as at all births..
Born of his mother's assent,
through her flesh torn and bleeding,
the Eternal Word came to dwell with us.