Fragment From The Pilgrim Road Poem by David McLansky

And so the Nun who climbed the wall
Beguiled by love, forgetting all,
Returned a beggar at the door
Seeking food and succor;
She moved the very sign of sin,
Deflowered lust a-bloom within,
A swollen belly she could not hide,
She crept in shadows shorn of pride;
She who knelt at evening prayers
Who glided softly on the stairs,
Who crossed the yard, the pride of all,
Became the Eve in Adam's Fall;
She the Virgin Bride of Christ,
The Pure of Heart, the Sacrifice,
Became the object, the very form,
Of dreaded Evil to be scorned;
Once she moved with head downcast,
A pious girl, blessed when passed,
Now became a creature cursed,
The lesson of the very worst;
She who once was isolated
Traveled wide and was berated;
She was the mule sent to town,
The object of a hundred frowns;
There to run the Convents errands,
Mocked by boys and sky borne herons



Pelted by cruel boys with stones,
Hunted, hounded, never left alone,
Exhausted by her endless chores,
Slammed in her face so many doors;
She knew little peace that endless summer,
And in the Fall there came the Mummers
There to enact the birth of Christ
For food and lodging as their price;
It was on the night of Mary's labor,
The night was born Our Hope and Savior
That as the Mummers rehearsed the play
That Ann gave birth 'mid stacks of hay;
It was a tactic of this band
To place a baby of the land
In the crib as Christ portrayed,
An honor for which the rich would pay;
But on the evening of the play,
No babe was found in which to lay
The object of Our Hopes Redeemed
In the crib to play the scene;
But in the barn they heard the groans
As Ann lay birthing all alone,
Upon the hay stained red with blood,
As cows and goats chewed their cud;
And so the leader of the band
Took the babe from Ann's weak hands
And placed it on the scaffold stage
As it whimpered distraught with rage;
The people came from miles around
Farmers, merchants of the town
Their to praise Our Lord Reborn
Played by a babe, an object scorned.
To see performed the birth of Christ,
To cross themselves as Priests did thrice.
To feel the presence of The Lord,
Re-enacted on crude boards;
To praise Him as He humbly lay
Brought to life within this play;
Their Faith and Hopes again restored,
Christ Our Savior and Our Lord.

After the play had been performed
They gathered about the child adorned
With rosemary, thyme and cardamom,
There his form to gaze upon;
They knelt and kissed his swaddled feet,
Marveling how his skin smelled sweet;
Asking favors of the Lord,
That health and wealth be reassured;