Picture of a Nativity

Sea-preserved, heaped with sea-spoils,

Ribs, keels, coral sores,

Detached faces, ephemeral oils,

Discharged on the world’s outer shores,

A dumb child-king

Arrives at his right place; rests,

Undisturbed, among slack serpents; beasts

With claws flesh-buttered. In the gathering

Of bestial and common hardship

Artistic men appear to worship

And fall down; to recognize

Familiar tokens; believe their own eyes.

Above the marvel, each rigid head,

Angels, their unnatural wings displayed,

Freeze into an attitude

Recalling the dead.