It came to pass that another man must make a nation great again
and Yusuf came down to register with Miriam who was with child.
Just another small history of no home to go to, down to the wire,
washed up in another great exodus washing across the ocean.

Miriam stares with her terrible dignity, her destiny to dream
of sinking breathless in a chill sea, seeing his face, blue, gone.
Who is holding Ramo? Such a small human thing, still warm,
wet in her arms in the black night. Ramo drowned, we go on.

Yusuf holding Miriam holding their second-born close and warm,
the burden light. No wonder wonder breaks through from some eternal
font of innocence for the good news: a son is given, a home is made
in a tent in Lesbos and she said, His name will be called Wonderful

to charm back the newness of a child's breath
perhaps the whole of what makes a nation great.

Kevin Conroy was runner-up in this year’s Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award. His work has appeared in various journals and he took part in the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series in 2014