Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Rest on the Flight into Egypt

How still the air must be this night –

A wisp of smoke

Moves straight to the sky

As the fugitive fire 

Slowly dies.

How still the night

As the light of heaven

Rests in Egypt’s ancient arms.

How still the night

As donkey grazes and

Joseph sleeps
While beyond the distant river
Some petty tyrant
Fashions weapons of war.

And a newly blessed mother

Slumbers in the protective Sabbath

Of a watchful Sphinx.

                                                 ~ CK

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Image: Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Artist: Luc Olivier Merson (French, 1846–1920)

Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1879

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