I was looking at my watch
while you were facing the altar,
craning your neck to catch
a glimpse past the bobbing heads
of the crowd, this one-day crowd
vying for a view,
while beside me a baby gurgled
and pointed as he bounced
on his mother’s shoulder.
I looked up and for a moment
through a gap between the bodies,
everything cleared,
and we were looking at the same thing,
you and I,
at the gifts carefully laid at the foot
of the marble manger
on which his body lay.

–December 25, 2008
Festival Eucharist, Washington National Cathedral