Heaven said: waters split, stars open up
your mouths and scream, animals shed your skin,
be naked. Heaven said —behold, the blood
is paid, the crushed hand, healed, the gouged
eye scooped back in the socket. The fruit remains
uneaten on the trees. Fields sweated into rivers,
dust settled, while angels blinked their thousand
wings, each feather a star, a pupil pointed in wonder
toward earth, the dim, celestial marble where the first
hymn had ended. Rocks cried out. A child was born.