But Mary Kept All These Things

This is not the place I should have chosen,
but choice has never been mine.
Nonetheless, in this stable, I hold a child
and my cloak covers the world.
Was there pain? Yes, friend, there was,
but the greater lies ahead, that I know.
He will be mine but a while,
for even now, as I look into His eyes,
He into mine, I see creation.
Shepherds came with their story
of angels bright on a bleak hillside,
but I was not surprised
for an angel spoke to me, long ago,
when I was a girl.
They have left, so for now
there are just the beasts
and the three of us.
He will not be ours for long:
this child is the world’s
and the world’s to come.