"LET ALL MORTAL FLESH KEEP SILENT"

 

The world begins in a humble bed

Love is given, a baby conceived, a baby born

We nurse it, tickle it, count its toes

So it has always been

 

Maybe a manger, maybe a bed

Maybe a child of God, maybe God Himself

 

Women become women in their beds

Men become men, touching and touched

We pray with watchful eyes

A time of heightened vigilance

 

A bed is a place to cry or hide under the covers

We gossip in bed:  sleepovers, lovers, marriages

We read

We drink our tea and watch TV

I kissed my mother goodby in her bed

My father too, a hospital bed

And even my son.  My son

I cannot write without being there

In the room at the bed 

With God at the bed, kneeling, yes He too

 

In our beds we wake with sorrow some days or years

I may dream of the train I hear 

Whose wheels could save me from despair

(Or wake with joy, a grandchild near)

 

Let my world end while I sleep, we pray

In a soft warm bed where body on body we were conceived  

Let our souls outlive our mortal flesh as is promised 

And enter heaven from this bed 

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

As the darkness clears away