Jake's Flea Market

the day mary
	is the mother of jesus   became the day
						mary was

	the sky must have been a nest of vipers

between the one
	snake- strike of lightning   down and the next
						there must have been thunder

a small whirlwind of dust
	on mount zion   must have coiled itself
	round and round into a funnel of cloud

that inhaled the cattle from the pasture
the fig trees from the garden

inhaled the tent mary had fled
and the body she’d left behind

after a thousand years
	and six hundred i wait for news

whether she’s returned to the dust
or whether she sits with elijah in paradise