Counsel

But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

A strategy of continence, avoidance, mule-headedness, and hope.

The next assassin, brush fire, or virus swerves this way, head-on collision;

We see it coming and can’t divert — the path too crowded with pilgrims.

By the side of the road to Calvary blooms a mustard bush.

It never means to do anything but propagate.

It sees the centuries winnow themselves in and out,

And hears itself appropriated for a parable.

It keeps all these things, and ponders them in its heart

While casting savior seeds generation after generation.