Flights of the Family

A cold coming we had of it,
the desert floor like an abandoned
sea bed, the cactus hobbling
our efforts, a murderous dictator behind
us, uncertainty ahead, only vague
warnings by an angel to serve as a guide.

We moved by night with a foreign sky
stretched above us, all celestial navigation
useless. We detoured around hostile
cities and dirty villages, angels singing
their songs to hurry us forward.
A hard time we had of it.

We stayed several summers amidst the alien
people clutching their gods. We learned
new ways of foretelling the future
in that temperate valley smelling of vegetation.

But we had to return to the kingdom of Death,
that old dispensation. I have seen birth
and death, so much death, the nails,
the pieces of silver, the thirty betrayals
that come before every daybreak.
I would be glad of another birth.

—Kristin Berkey-Abbott

Seed: “A cold coming we had of it”

Source: “Journey of the Magi,” by T. S. Eliot

Kristin Berkey-Abbott has published individual works in a broad variety of print journals and online sites, in addition to three chapbooks of poetry: Whistling Past the Graveyard (Pudding House Publications), I Stand Here Shredding Documents, and Life in the Holocene Extinction (both published by Finishing Line Press). Before moving into administration, Kristin taught at many colleges, and is now the Director of Education at the Hollywood (Florida) campus of City College.