jesus the boy

Once upon a time there was a boy
named Jesus born to a Jewish couple
by the name of Mary and Joseph.

Mary was a stay at home mom
and Joseph found employment
as a carpenter and did hvac on
the side.

They were a middle class couple who bought 
a  modest home  in Maspeth, Queens.

The year was 2013

The house was made of brick 
and had a front deck which jutted out over 
the one car driveway.
At the beginning of  this summer Joseph bought two  round cement 
planters which he placed at various angles
on the stairs that found their way to their front deck.
 
The height of  the cement planter was about twenty  inches.   

The base of each planter was square and set on the ground approximately
four to six inches wide.  
The stem reached up from the base and had a narrow stance, but 
it became rounder as it  moved upward till it held the full girth of the box of the planter
and the eye would catch it as it wound itself round and round and formed itself into the lip of the circumference of the pot until the outer rim was a finished width of about fifteen or so inches.

The box of the planter's depth was five inches and Joseph would put into the
box a nice firm soil rich with  nutrients which he had made from a compost
of assorted items that he kept in the backyard.   

This compost were the innards of the round bowl.  It would feed the
flowers and give them life.

Joseph would then methodically set about doing the same thing with the 
second planter.

Earlier that week he had phoned Sam the neighborhood greenhouse owner to package 
some pink and white geraniums and to drop them off at the house.

Sam had obliged and Joseph had found the familiar packaging of the green and red 
bag with the weeping willow tree that was the signature of Sam's Greenhouse placed
outside of the garage door.

Joseph was happy and began to hum as he began to arrange 
the flowers in the planters.

He already knew that he would place one planter at  the first level  where the staircase
came to rest.   It was a square landing of three feet by three feet and then the red 
bricks of stairs would begin their ascent again and finish their upward swing  
to the full deck at the top.

Joseph then would place the second planter at the top of the stairs
and to the side so when you were coming up the stairs you were
caught by the beauty of the first planter and  then made the 
climb of six steps to the top where your eyes were greeted with the colors of 
the second planter.

Joseph stood back and admired his work.

"Hmm, something was missing," he thought.. 

Just at that moment Jesus was coming out of the house
and the screen door closed slowly and quietly behind him.

Jesus was Joseph's 13 year old son.

He caught his father just at that moment admiring his plants,
and Jesus couldn't help but smile at the man who had taught
him so much.

Joseph thought to himself that the white and pink colors were nice but the 
planter needed a splash of  cosmic color.

Joseph didn't hear Jesus behind him until he felt the  shadow 
of  Jesus' presence and heard the whisper that only his son could mouth, "nice job, dad."


"Yes, but it needs something, " Joseph thought.

Jesus smiled.  "Dad, what about these orange geraniums from the
greenhouse box?"

Joseph turned.

There were four plump orange geraniums peeping out from the 
greenhouse bag.

"Why, Jesus, that is just what is needed."  

"Yes," said Jesus.

"I must have missed them."

"Yes."

Happily Joseph planted the burst of orange geraniums amidst the pink and white
and the picture was complete.

Father and son admired the father's work.




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