“Before God spilled the stars like diamonds” by Jane Beal

Before God spilled the stars like diamonds across the velvet black sky,
before the sun eclipsed the moon,
before the sweet-pea flowers grew in the garden of Eden,
before rain fell in buckets too big for earth,
before an old man got drunk in his vineyard,
before no one could understand one another anymore,
before the princess was barren,
before the father raised his knife over his son,
before the trickster met the shepherdess by the well,
before the mandrake roots and the coat of many colors,
before dreaming in Egypt, before escape, before the Promised Land,
before conquests and kings, prophets and traitors and the Carpenter-Christ—

your soul was known by the Maker-of-all-Things
and swaddled forever in the heart of love.

Jane Beal
Sunflower Songs (2012)