What the Donkey Saw
In the poem “What the Donkey Saw” the donkey that witnessed baby Jesus getting born in its stable reflects about the experience. The kind donkey acknowledges how Jesus and his parents overcrowd the already small stable, inconveniencing the animals, but states that it doesn’t mind, as it can already feel a bond with the baby.
Not the Millennium
In the poem “Not the Millennium” the speaker complains about certain people’s obsession with using science to analyze and take apart spiritual stories and myths. The speaker acknowledges that the stories don’t hold up to close scrutiny but argues that this is irrelevant as they never claim to portray reality.
The Cleaner
In the poem “The Cleaner” the speaker, a woman working as a cleaner in a university, comments on the different people whose lives she witnesses. In the first stanza, the cleaner reveals that she has been married for a long time and therefore knows what all men are after. In the following stanzas she recollects seemingly countless instances of where she witnessed young female students making mistakes and getting hurt. Sometimes, the cleaner tried to intervene, other times she appeared to have been curious as to why these women were acting the way they did. In the last stanza however, the cleaner reveals that she isn’t fooled by the apparent innocence of these young women as she, having access to very intimate parts of the students’ lives such as their thrash, has learned to read very well.
