I count the interlocking candy canes

Around the border of the Christmas throw,

And wonder how compact a life can grow

Before no narrative at all remains.

Go into your cell, Abba Moses coaxed,

Your cell will teach you everything.

                                                           Does each

Crack in the rock, does every trickling breach

Speak truth? Outside this cave, are all verhexed?

I learned today I can no longer make

Haus-Segen, with their stars and birds and flowers,

A prayer or scripture verse to lend its powers

To bless, or heal. My hands forever shake.

Had shepherds sought along some vista’d way,

Would they have missed the cave where Jesus lay?

(Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch words:

Verhexed: spellbound, bewitched

Haus-Segen: house blessing.)