The Virgin Girth

She felt not the flame of sex, the hot joy of muscles flex in fiery torch of human flesh, nor warmth of hands upon her breasts, nor sacred, long-desired quest for union with her man, and rest.

And though her seed was made for an X and Joseph had not met her Y she waited with expectant faith to give the world her Savior's birth. Her son, Messiah, come to earth, would soon engage the Virgin's girth --

Where dark within her uterus, past her chaste, uncharted hips and ground of holy virgin lips the breath of God so gently kissed and thus conceived the Word as flesh -- the sperm of God now deep at rest.

And pregnant became the Mother of Christ, bearing the promise of God -- the Christ! -- and there in Mary our Jesus the groom was sprouting up in David's womb, and down within this silent room was One who'd slay the very tomb.

So all of Heaven's glorious light was placed inside Our Lady that night: the Lord of Heaven was now below and soon her menses ceased to flow as Miriam's belly began to show when Jesus, her foetus, began to grow.

The One who made both eyes and ears, the optic nerves and ducts for tears, who flung the stars and moon in place was warm within this inner space: and so was Mary filled with Grace, and blessed inside her private place.

Soon He heard his mother's songs, the ancient praise of Hebrew psalms, and felt the rhythmic pound of a heart -- a song of praise to the Sacred Heart -- that beat with the sound of a sacred art no virgin learns, but God imparts.

And then one night of cervical pain right through the Virgin's vagina He came as with one last momentous push, which caused her blood and fluids to gush, the boy shot past her burning bush and all of Heaven bowed to a hush.

And with an orgasmic feast of joy the angels sang to greet this boy, for there amidst the afterbirth, the wet placenta and dust of earth, was wrapped the babe whose blood, at death, would cleanse the sins of all the earth.

Amidst these cries of Christ at birth (Did Mary know they shadowed death?), was there a midwife with Joseph that night? Or did he take a sharpened knife and cut the cord connecting his wife from Jesus, the foetus, Redeemer and Life?

And was this child no more than flesh, this baby drinking from Miriam's breasts? O Yes! ten thousand times say Yes! For here the child so born for us was God Almighty come to us, who lived and died a man for us.

For here was Jesus, the Word made flesh, the foetus of God, El Nino at rest. And out from this, the Virgin's girth, He'd bring to all the world His mirth: For He's the one whose Virgin birth has vanquished hell and murdered death.

-- Walter Skold (wsvnsk2@juno.com), December 25, 1999

Answers

Just pretend the breaks are there. Don't know how to format it differently.....Have a MARY Christmas, and a Joseph New Millennium. :)

-- WalterSkold (wsvns@juno.com), December 25, 1999.

X-rated blasphemy.

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 25, 1999.

Before any more of you object, think on this:

On this day, countless numbers of people celebrate a birth, a birth said to be one of Spirit choosing to be made flesh.

Many of us here have given birth, and this birth story told over and over brings back our own birth stories and memories. We may remember that the birthing situation was not as we'd hoped, though most of us had better conditions than a stable. We don't know what Mary really felt, but those of us who have given birth know that nothing other than our own deaths will match that sensation of flinging ourselves head-on into the unknown like that first birthing. Many of us hope our child will be one who brings hope and peace to the world, and hope we won't have the pain of seeing our child die before we do. In some ways Mary's story is our story, in some ways our bodies share the same truths of mothers all over. I wish Mary could have shared her story with us.

I've given birth. What Walter says in his poem is true of women who give birth.If every one of those parts was good enough for Jesus to be born from, if every one of them was made by the Creator, then they are good enough to be honored with the truth of a woman's birthing. Walter speaks of the reality with gritty honesty, not through a haze of piety, but I feel he honors the experience of Spirit becoming flesh.

Other viewpoints may vary, but as a mother I thank you, Walter Skjald.

-- Firemouse (firemouse@fcmail.com), December 25, 1999.

UH, nice try walter. but i sense a bit of mischief here with your insisted use of sexual not physical terms. god knows your true intent. i think you could have been more effective without the sexual titillation.

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), December 26, 1999.