The brightness beckoning, reckoning
light years away, in the beginning, there was a star
which now calls them from afar to follow,
stumbling in the daytime, in the forests,
fog-filled valleys, rallying with breathless joy
on the mountaintop where all is clear,
by the river reflecting, calling, falling into
intrigue and deceit, despondency when
questions turn hostile, visas are denied, barricades erected,
then the twist: the sudden smiling of a greasy guard,
the gifts of the king, the proverbial poison chalice.
Gold, frankincense, myrrh and mirth,
great joy to find a starlit sky
and beneath it, the world laid out to cry
with the voice of a newborn, piercing the night.