Chosen

Out of Bethlehem
I Call
out of faith
out of fear
she ran
while mothers wept
unconsoled.
Out of Egypt
I Call
out of faith
out of fear
(blind obedience)
she returned.
The wonder is
the women didn't stone her
or look askance
from the corners of their Eyes
comforting their daughters with
one day she'll get hers--
human nature.
Out of the depths
I call
out of faith
out of fear
thirty years later
she would come to understand
the ineffable liberation
of grief.


(Image: Flight Into Egypt, He Qi, 2001)