‘Stepfather’ by Daniel Kemper

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The hills that Joseph meditated on
were black and just a bit like elephants,
but if somehow they counterpointed dawn,
there was no sign of its deliverance.
“Beloved, my beloved, how?—and why!”
Against her tenderly-appearing age,
a crowd of raging thoughts must have cried out,
though Joseph, being just, would want to try
to reach beyond the shock, beyond outrage,
but being just a man, he was in doubt.

A crowd of raging thoughts needs little time,
within these darkened hours, to choose their stones—
and ample human rules declare such crime
is justly served that way. But something hones
a different justice now, perhaps, because
although disgrace might be removed, it would
still be his life that was exposed, not just
her shame. A quiet way to use the laws
might do, and be better understood;
an undesired divorce—it seems he must.

“Beloved, my beloved, why? And how?”
Rages will find reasons and furies find
their forms, and what cannot be bullied now,
can be beguiled, and later redesigned:
the crowd of raging thoughts would not be through
with this man’s mind just yet. For after all,
she might be held in secret isolation
before divorce, and then for all to view,
the grief exposed outside the village wall—
a gift to shepherds, dogs, or desolation.

The root of raging thoughts mismeasured him,
for God chose Joseph, too, and not just Mary,
and love is Love, not just some treasured whim,
so vengeful thoughts were merely momentary
and were deliberately put out of mind.
The source of grief, of every leering laugh,
was not to be abortively exposed
outside the village wall. He was resigned
and likely clutching hard on to his staff,
his torment slowly spinning down, he dozed.

Asleep, how often we have ears to hear
what we can’t hear when we’re awake—we’re prone
to miss that anger’s root is often fear,
and often fear has root in the unknown,
but soon in Joseph’s sleep, the still small love
from Yahweh: Joseph do not be afraid,
it shushed, to take home Mary as your wife,
for that which is conceived in her is of-
the Holy Spirit. Perfect Love thus made
his fear depart and faith become a life.

The elephantine hills were never black-
ened by despair again, nor were they white-
ened by the stark and unforgiving wrack
of desert glare; instead, the wholesome light
of dawn began to open Joseph’s eyes,
to sigh, to touch his hair and stroke his hand.
His fingers soon unconsciously uncurled,
color returned, and he began to rise;
and with a love that he had never planned,
became step-father of a blended world.

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Daniel Kemper is a systems engineer living in California.