The ass was uncomfortable. Mary was tired. Jesus was fussy, and she thought it was because his halo didn’t fit, pinching his aura.

“Joseph,” she said, “We need to go to Goodwill and get new haloes.”

“They sell them at Michael’s, you know. That’s closer.”

Jesus was in full-out wail now. “No. They’re cheaper at Goodwill. 99 cents. At Michael’s, they’re $3.50. Plus they’re closed on Sundays.”

Joseph mulled. Two angels flew over. He thought about snatching a halo from the smaller one’s head, but God seemed always to be watching.

Jesus fell asleep, finally, and they went to Goodwill: out of haloes, but they bought golden plates that floated behind their heads. She hadn’t noticed the golden flecks in Jesus’s eyes until they put them on.

Mary said, “That’s so much better. No pinching. He’s happy. Our boy likes a bargain.”

Elizabeth Kerlikowske

is no longer the president of anything, and it feels great! She spends her time cooking with foods she’s never tasted before.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Into the Oak, prose poem by Kerlikowske in MacQ-9 (August 2021)

⚡ Featured Artists Mary Hatch and Elizabeth Kerlikowske in KYSO Flash (Issue 9, Spring 2018); includes half a dozen of Kerlikowske’s ekphrastic prose poems and micro-fictions inspired by Hatch’s paintings

⚡ Three in Prose by Kerlikowske in DIAGRAM (Issue 5.1): “Forty Winks,” “The Girls’ Room,” and “Midway”