Counsel

But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. A strategy of continence, avoidance, mule-headedness, and hope. The next assassin, brush fire, or virus swerves this way, head-on collision; We see it coming and can’t divert — the path too crowded with pilgrims. By the side of the road to Calvary blooms a mustard bush. It never means to do anything but propagate. It sees the centuries winnow themselves in and out, And hears itself appropriated for a parable. It keeps all these things, and ponders them in its heart While casting savior seeds generation after generation.