IN NAZARETH

Coming again to the place that was your home 

before the weeks of Bethlehem, the years

of Egypt, you will have found some cause for tears—

tributes for burials to which you could not come—

and cause for laughter, too, for celebrating

all that brings joy to human life again.

Exiled no more, you could say a free amen

to the gifts of the God who never stops creating.

You governed your house, conversed with neighbors and friends,

kept an eye on dooryard and children, gave

them their chores and praised their faithful work, then waved

them out to their childhood games in day’s end.

If ever, in this world, you had a taste

of ordinary peace, it was in this place.