Look on high to the east.
Behold the lone distant star,
a grain of spectral dust
alight far off.
Is its glimmer truly there?

Is it, as we’ve heard told,
in our here and now
black and dead,
as the speck of light
far off sent
reaches our eyes
and punctuates our dark?

We look now day and night
for laser beam truth
and peacock beauty
in our world so often
dull and cold and gray.

Above across the pitch-dark heavens
a speck of light comes through to us
the metaphorical wick of a candle
in transitory afterglow.

A candle molded of modest words
lit on a humble mount
spoken long ago
by a carpenter’s son
whose name we were told,
Jesus Yeshua Aramaic
Messiah Khristos in Greek,
Yahweh is salvation
the anointed one
the son of G-d,
believers say,
to guide our souls
along their way
lest our manmade lights go out
and darkness engulf our world
throughout.