Poem: “Descending Theology: Christ Human” Mary Karr, Poetry Magazine, December 2001: via Alissa Wilkinson (Dec23,2k12) and The reformational Daily (Dec25,2k12)

“

   Such a short voyage for a god

and you arrived in animal form so as not
   
  to scorch us with your glory

Your mask was an infant’s head on a limp stalk,
   
  sticky eyes smeared blind,

limbs rendered useless in swaddle.
   
  You came among beasts

as one, came into our care or its lack, came crying
   
  as we all do, because the human frame

is a crucifix, each skeleton borne a lifetime.
   
  Any wanting soul lain

prostrate on a floor to receive the poured sunlight
   
  might — if still enough,

feel your cross buried in the flesh.
   
  One has only to surrender,

you preached, open both arms to the inner,
   
  the ever-present embrace,

which props one up, out-reaches every grasp.
   
  It’s in the form imbedded,

love adamant as bone. The miracle’s not just
   
  that you became us, but also

those breathed-in instants allotted to us each
   
  (even poor Brother Judas),

when one relinquishes self and will and want.
   
  Then you’re laid bare in us,

and for some briefly gentle eyeblink
   
we bloom and are you. 

”