Un-noticed

UN-NOTICED

Joseph
in love with Mary
led her un-noticed
through the streets
avoiding hawkers
the camel's bite
the donkey's kick

many brushed
the protruding
belly, priest
thief & child

within her the hands
& feet were forming
ready for the nails

I thought I'd put this poem on the blog - it's the only sort of Christmasy one I've ever done. I wrote it over forty years ago after a heated dinner-party discussion over the Virgin mother. I wanted to stress the human side of Jesus's birth.