Published on: December 5th, 2006
Flight into Egypt
A poem by Sally Sampson
Cradling small homages of gold
and spices, Judea’s king hears children
at play in shadowed courtyards—shouting as before Jericho’s walls;
imagines a swaddled,
suckling infant on the throne.
Sage Oriental travelers, divining
murder in darting eyes and taut,
whitened lips—sly whispers
around the banquet table, flee
during third watch; bribe a stablehand
for their spitting mounts.
Above eastern hills, early light
stretches behind pacing sentries and
listless beggars—lengthens; strengthens;
crosses a carpenter’s easy sleep with
nails, hammer, blood on fresh-hewn
wood and sudden partings.
Sally Sampson
[reprinted from Student Leadership journal, Winter 1995]
