If the return engagement is to follow the modus operandi
of His previous run, then He will be born in a humble
place, a place where the common and the poor will find Him,
where the riches of kings and wise men from the East

will seem out of place. And if we are to be blessed by His return
during the current age, then shouldn’t the Lord be born
in a Wal-Mart in rural West Virginia, quite probably
the one down the road from my house? His frightened new mother

will swaddle Him in a grey “Property of Jesus – XXL”
fleece hoodie from the ample center-aisle display and lay Him
in a green plastic wheelbarrow from the garden department
and the shoppers and pilgrims will be drawn, without understanding why,

past the displays of eighty-eight cent Hershey bars
and pyramids of Axe Deodorant Body Spray to kneel
among the bagged grass seed and potted pepper plants,
beholding the newborn Lord.