gtaylor@astroatc.UUCP (Pereant Qui Ante Nos Nostra Dixerunt) (12/21/86)
I Was in Town for the Census
In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree
that a census should be taken of the entire
Roman world. (This was the first census that took
place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And
everyone went to their own town to register.
-the Gospel according to St. Luke 2:1\*-3
What do I know about the Heavens? Perhaps some
Return was figured in the wheeling hawk, the
Travellers in their holding patterns and the
Bear and Lyre above\*-returnings are never quite
What you expect. I will tell you what I did see.
I came back to be counted to a place I barely
Recognized. Everywhere the inns were under
Different management and overbooked. The dogs
Under the tables barked at everything. Of course,
The census took forever. Meanwhile, we were
Unoccupied in an occupied land, watching the
Sparrows mingling water with their beating
Wings at the fountain's edge and the lamb's
Eccentric course on the nearby hillside. So the
News of a birth in the stable behind my room was
Just the sort of thing to fill a sleepless night.
Later, when Herod's men came ("Just double
Checking," they said), I lied to them,
Saying I'd seen nothing out of the ordinary.
Perhaps that, too, was foretold someplace,
Encoded in the chromosomes between the
Ciphers for "Resignation" and "The Hand
Upraised to Strike." But I recall nothing of
that written in the child's face\*-only the
Pure ascent of dreaming, and breath the
Shape of incense in the crisp air beneath
A cross of roof beams overhead. I remember,
Too, his father's voice at the stable door:
"The door ajar will admit only a little
Light, but I think it will be enough."