Sun Moon Star Read online

  Sun Moon Star

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Ivan Chermayeff

  Behold,

  a virgin shall be with child,

  and shall bring forth a son,

  and they shall call his name Emanuel,

  which being interpreted is,

  God with us.

  Copyright

  Sun Moon Star

  Copyright © 1980, 2013 by Kurt Vonnegut and Ivan Chermayeff

  Special Contents and Electronic Edition © 2013 by RosettaBooks LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  ISBN e-Pub edition: 9780795335525

  To begin:

  When the Creator of the Universe

  came to Earth,

  when It resolved to be born

  as a male human infant

  in a stable

  attached to a busy inn,

  It had never had need for eyes before.

  It had known all things and been all things.

  The Creator had only to exist.

  That was enough.

  But now, as a human infant,

  It was also going to see–

  and to do so imperfectly,

  through two human eyes,

  each a rubbery little camera.

  It was night when the Creator was born.

  It cried like anyone else.

  When It opened Its eyes wide for the first time,

  they were filled with tears

  and bleary.

  It could not see anything

  in detail.

  It could not tell what was near

  and what was far.

  Thus did It confuse the flame of a lamp

  held near It,

  a burning rag in a cup of oil,

  with a supernova,

  with the exploding

  Christmas star.

  A crescent moon arose.

  The points of the Christmas star

  dropped off.

  There were cries of dismay.

  There were thumps.

  Only one minute old,

  and cradled in the hands of a midwife,

  the Creator had witnessed Its first

  human accident.

  The moon was the forehead of Joseph,

  who would pretend to be the Creator’s father

  with all his heart.

  Joseph held the lamp.

  Joseph so adored the infant

  that he had allowed the lamp to tilt.

  The falling points of the star

  were beads of burning oil.

  The thumps were made by Joseph’s feet

  as he stamped out the little fires

  on the stable floor.

  Joseph begged the forgiveness of God.

  He was heard.

  The Creator

  closed Its eyes tight

  for the first time,

  expecting to return

  to all-knowing darkness.

  It learned that perfect darkness

  would not be Its again

  for so long as It chose to live.

  Human eyes, It learned,

  imagined that they saw things

  even when they were closed.

  They showed the Creator

  all these imaginary

  suns.

  The Creator opened Its eyes wide again.

  This would be the second time.

  The sky was now a dazzling chaos.

  It was nothing but exploding

  Christmas stars.

  A Roman matron, a tourist,

  a guest at the inn,

  had come into the stable for the amusement

  of seeing a baby,

  any baby,

  born.

  She wished to show the baby

  something wonderful at once,

  and so had removed a crystal necklace

  from her throat,

  and now dangled

  those prismatic chips of quartz, backlit,

  before the Creator’s eyes.

  The necklace was not to be a present.

  Only the memory of its

  glitter was the Creator’s to keep.

  The Roman matron

  was called back to the inn

  by her husband.

  All the Christmas stars fled

  as the necklace was hastily

  withdrawn.

  And a seeming sun

  began to rise.

  The midwife

  was now giving the Creator

  into the arms of Its mother

  Mary.

  in her radiance

  after all the pain was gone,

  was the seeming rising

  Mary,

  sun.

  Mary

  was little more

  than a child

  herself–

  But the Creator of the Universe,

  unbelievingly and rapturously,

  felt all Creation

  easily engulfed

  and lovingly

  by a single

  rising sun.

  The Creator

  closed Its eyes tight for the second time,

  and It sucked

  warm milk

  from

  Its mother.

  The Creator slept.

  It dreamed

  Its first dream.

  It dreamed

  Its second dream.

  It dreamed

  Its third dream.

  Its fourth dream was simply green.

  It had never seen

  green

  before.

  It was still night

  when It awoke.

  It saw this seeming moon,

  which was the midwife

  keeping watch.

  The pale sheen on her face

  was lamplight.

  Now the lamp was moved

  who wished to look

  at the sleeping Mary,

  causing the seeming moon

  to wane.

  by Joseph,

  Now the sounds of oceanic alarm

  and grief filled the infant’s ears.

  It was the bleating of sheep

  brought down from the hills by shepherds

  who were following

  what the Creator could not see

  from Its manger,

  which was the real Christmas star.

  Mary was awakened.

  She came now and looked down on the Creator

  with the midwife,

  a seeming sun in partial eclipse

  to the Creator,

  who could not move a hand or foot,

  bound as It was,

  a tiny package,

  in swaddling clothes.

  Yes,

  and Mary picked up her baby.

  It might be necessary to flee,

  as weak as she was.

  The King had declared that all newborn male babies

  were to be

  executed.

  She held the tiny package

  which was the Creator of the Universe

  to her breast and shoulder,

  so that Its eyes looked toward the door.

  It saw a sun,

  which was Its mother’s shoulder,

  and then the moon of the midwife,

  and then a star,

  which was Joseph at the doorway

  with the lamp.

  A shepherd told Joseph

  that they had come to adore the baby,

&nb
sp; who was the Creator of the Universe.

  The shepherds did not wish to crowd into the stable.

  They meant to kneel in the courtyard,

  if only the child could be brought for a moment

  to the door.

  The child was brought to the door by Joseph.

  The real Christmas star had then set.

  The real moon had set.

  It was near dawn.

  The Creator’s eyes could not focus

  on the myriad pinpricks

  which were all the other heavenly bodies,

  nor the sheep.

  The Creator could see only

  the torches out there.

  But then,

  when Joseph carried the swaddled baby

  back to the manger,

  one torchbearer came after him,

  followed by two other men.

  These were three wise men,

  sent by King Herod from Jerusalem

  to find this child.

  Herod said he wished to worship it.

  He really wished to kill it,

  for it was supposed to be

  a new King of the Jews.

  The torch was held close to the baby,

  between Mary and the midwife,

  so that the wise men

  could see what manner of baby this

  was.

  The Creator

  now saw a sun,

  a moon

  and a star

  come together

  in an impossible cosmic tangle.

  What could be the explanation?

  The baby’s eyes had crossed.

  So It closed Its eyes

  and saw orange–

  because of the torch nearby.

  It heard the wise men

  prove they were truly wise.

  They told Mary and Joseph

  that this was the Creator of the Universe

  they saw,

  and that they would

  not tell the King or anyone

  of Its birth.

  They made presents

  of such small treasures

  as they happened to have with them.

  They left.

  When the Creator opened Its eyes again,

  they were still crossed.

  Joseph’s lamp and the midwife

  looked like this

  to It.

  But Its eyes uncrossed in sleep–

  And during a dream of Its Mother–

  never to cross again.

  A rooster crowed,

  but the Creator of the Universe

  slept on and on.

  Joseph picked It up,

  and still It slept on and on.

  Joseph carried It out of doors.

  It dreamed purple.

  Heat baked Its face.

  It opened Its eyes.

  It saw what It thought was a sun.

  For the first time in Its short human life

  It was right:

  It really was

  a sun It saw–

  a small one.

  And an ox was led out of the stable

  and an ass was led out of the stable

  to carry firewood.

  A rooster crowed again,

  although the sun had been up for hours.

  And life went on.

  to plow,

  Amen.

 

 

  Kurt Vonnegut, Sun Moon Star

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