heavy mettle

oh that riveting feeling of deja vu
that the Baby Jesus must have felt
the first time that the Blessed Mother Mary
lifted Him up to gaze out of the portal
of the Holy Family’s flying saucer

“Some day all of this will be yours”,she whispered the prediction in his ear
-and Him just toddler articulate enough to reply,
“You mean the whole enchilada?”
“Si, indeed”,she affirmed
“For better or worse; for thine is the kingdom…”
and her voice trailed off

Wow ! -what a gift
to be given at such a young age and with little or no training
the family business
to be handed the reins of all those mighty stallions
to come, to see, to digest the whole enchilada in one gulp

but of course there was more there than initially meets the eye
as Moms sometimes do,Mother Mary didn’t tell Baby Jesus about
the hard part
the betrayal,the bogus trial,the cross,the taunts,the nails,the thirst
the pain in His heart that was to come

to hang up there helpless and have to watch it all fall apart,
to see it all dissolve and go down the drain
faster than you can say
“And thine was the kingdom and the glory”

sometimes Mothers just feel that they must hold back
they cannot bring themselves to tell their sons
the awful truth
the ways things really are when we don’t pretend