Henrietta DuCap

as the lifetime of a tree

~ Isaiah 65:22 ~

At the confluence of four streams

The tree’s fruit grows ripe

Until something

Whispers in the leaves.

Visitors dine

Beneath the terebinth,

Its bark gnarled

As the laughing face of the woman in the tent.

Seven hundred rings

Circle the shoot

That springs yellow-green

From the stump.

At the base of the tree,

Gamblers whisper in afternoon darkness.

In a place of no night, twelve fruits nestle

Among healing leaves.

spheres

We moved in our spheres, constant like constellations

We mapped and consulted. The planets among them played,

Turned, and spun, never touching.

Then we beheld the King’s Star strung

Along a line of heavenly bodies—Jupiter over Judea,

Announcing the conception of a King.

Our gifts glimmered in the courts of Jerusalem,

And caught the eyes of desert robbers

As our robes juxtaposed with Bethlehem’s sand.

Surely we journeyed in circles, orbiting

Our destination. But it was there the pillar rested—

A star that our charts did not describe.

In a small house, mother and child sat singing.

When they touched, we did not need numbers to know

That heaven had touched Earth.

ruach

A strange wind whistled,

Filling each of my ears

But leaving room for the words:

“My soul magnifies the Lord.”

As pain overtook me, his cries

Came through the night, powerful as God.

Between silent breaths as we fled in the dark

I pondered the song in my heart.

I shouted out his name in the crowds,

Followed his rising voice

That twined with the Torah words.

I worried for the guests, then tasted the wine.

I sat beneath him in tears and blood.

The song seemed dead until

The garden in the cool of the third day.

He came like wind through a closed door.

“My soul magnifies the Lord.”

My breath carried on the great gust

As the Spirit overshadowed me—

Once more.

Henrietta DuCap earned her BA in Creative Writing from Cornerstone University. She also studied Children’s Literature for a term at the University of Oxford. Her work has appeared in The Makeshift Review, Keys for Kids, Ekstasis, Exhale, and The Agape Review. She lives in Michigan with her husband and baby girl.