Another child was lost again that day.
So she, not far from childhood still herself,
went up the rocky path to find the boy.
The village mothers always sought her help.

He sang and played in innocence sublime,
when she arriving saw the snake too close,
without a thought of self, she ran and leapt.
Her naked foot came down and crushed its head

The boy laughed gaily on her narrow back,
She paid no mind to blood beneath her heel
from striking hard upon a sharpened rock,
the price of one more triumph of her love

Along the way she pondered change to come,
betrothed so young to him who was so good.
She’d please the man and play the role she must,
yet caring for the children was her joy.

She left the boy with siblings in his house
and walked across to her own humble home.
her parents in the field by day, she let
the curtain fall across the narrow door

She sat a moment on the bed to rest
her foot, in silence in the darkened room,
and glimpsed the sudden mystery of life,
each child a gift from God in ev’ry house

She loved them all as if they were her own,
and each would turn to her in hour of need.
Yet, virgin mother to the village brood,
she had not one to love above the rest

A cloud of dread then passed before her eyes
that should she soon give birth to her own child.
She’d love it with a love that takes her all,
abandoning the rest outside the door.

Yet God’s own light then lit the darkened room.
She saw as clearly as in brightest sun
the child that she would some day bear
for all, a sacrifice of love.