Nativity

They tried for years

before they scheduled an appointment

with the fertility clinic

It didn't work

the first time

and she lost the baby

the second

They were broke

and exhausted

Sometimes they skipped meals

to pay the bills

Some nights Joseph stretched his arm

and Mary's side would be empty

because she was standing

in the nursery

Jospeh didn't want to

try again

but Mary had a dream

An angel spoke to her

beckoned her

but she could not understand

the ancient tongue

Then three men

with gray faces

and golden crowns

kneeled at her feet

and kissed the dirt

She scheduled the appointment

without telling him

Better to ask forgiveness

than permission

once the baby was

alive in her

He found out

of course

when the clinic called

to confirm

and he picked up

Third time's a charm?

he screamed at her

You waste our money on your

false prophecies

You can't understand

the ache I feel

she cried

She slammed the door

with swollen eyelids

and drove to the clinic

the next morning

alone

The angel visited again

after her fourth appointment

He did not speak

even as Mary begged him

for answers

and asked for her husband

to forgive her

He only smiled and

placed a hand on her

stomach

She woke in

tears

He drove her to the

24 hour pharmacy

for a pregnancy test

She couldn't wait to go home

so she ducked into the

grimy staff bathroom

At 3:27 am,

Mary was six weeks

pregnant

Joseph kissed her

in the parking lot

and cried

in front of his wife

for the first time

Forty weeks later,

their test tube baby

manufactured by latex hands

in a sterile laboratory

was born a

warm-blooded daughter

in the passenger seat

of Joseph's truck

under a sky so thick with smog

you could only spot

a single star

above their heads

She was their

miracle

their salvation

so they named her

Bethlehem

(Beth for short)