St. Joseph: Statue?

Did Joseph study His face, I wonder.

Is it blasphemy, do you think, to imagine the carpenter,

in quiet moments when he could hear the Newborn suckling

against his Virgin wife’s soft breast

 (is the softness of the Virgin’s breast, the whiteness of it,

is that perhaps blasphemy too?)

Did he measure the Baby’s face

(like Hers, but unlike his)

to extrapolate the face of the Father

like he would measure the location for a hinge,

where it would attach, and where it would extend

beyond?

Or did he just find himself just naturally noticing,

like he noticed grain in wood,

that would guide his tools or vex them

as he did his work,

making things needed

out of materials provided?

Seems to me (or is it blasphemy

to think) that maybe

it was not as simple for Joseph,

no dumb animal whose mere breath

would warm the scene

until the Magi came with wonder

until the cross came with terror

to make sense of all this

Mystery.

No wonder people bury him

head down in the yards

of houses that don’t seem to sell,

to make the best of a terrible market.

Blasphemy, it seems to me.