by Maryella Desak Sirmon

Stars prick pinholes in the evening sky,
little chinks in a stamped-tin ceiling
of an old farmhouse with no roof.
After two icy nights, tattered grass
offers a bleak path of crackly carpet.
Restless steps speak of longing
planted in my soul, growing from ground
beneath my feet like a buried seed.
Hollow darkness pauses, listens
for a baby’s cry while echoes
of ancient angel song vibrate within
earth’s memory and my anticipation.
Bethlehem moments gather 
into the final insistent push of birth
whose pain will deliver the eternal Way.
Mysterious alchemy transfigures
my apprehension into awakening,
understanding as I wait,
Emmanuel is ─ waiting with me.

Maryella Desak Sirmon is a wife, mother, physician, and poet.  She serves as Chalice Bearer and Lector in her church. Much of her work has been scribbled at odd hours on paper scraps found in the pocket of a white coat. She has an abiding interest in the world we live in, the stories we tell each other, and the art of medicine. Her poetry and essay have been published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, The Oracle Fine Arts Review, October Hill Magazine, Pulse – Voices of Medicine, The Poet, Deep South Magazine, Delta Poetry Review and three anthologies. Her work has been reprinted in This Side of Doctoring and The Arduous Touch. She has work forthcoming in The Annals of Internal Medicine and a fourth anthology, The America Collection.