Star

The star sharpened, quietly bright, as shadows darkened into night, a point of shining light that guides three kings to where the child abides. They visited, arrayed with treasure, gold and incense for his pleasure; poor tokens for a life of trial exemplifying self-denial. A man above, a man apart, beloved of God with hardly time to steel his heart; a man who sacrificed his soul to make the unrepentant whole. He took Mary for his lover, she was caring, and sought cover to conceal his dissolution, (a passion pure, no need of absolution.) The star that consecrated birth no longer smiles upon the earth; he wept for us upon the cross and every day we mourn his loss.