Stellulam sequendo

As a small child, inexperienced in the ways of Christmas carols, I believed for years that "to certain" was a verb—to set someone straight, to explain the situation; to make them certain. The first Noel, the angels did say, was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay. What's with this star overhead? Who were those three foreigners? Why is an angel talking to me? Relax; we have all the answers. And in a minute, so will you. Noel.

With perhaps slightly less cause, but wider creative application, I also thought that the line in "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing" was not "God and sinners reconciled" but "God and Satan . . ."

Further deponent saith not. Merry Christmas.

Perdidit Spolia

This time of year, the angel on the doorstep
tousles no snow from his hair, bright as haws,
a halo only in sunrise or sunset flare,
but for him the candles bob down their flames
and the fire gutters like a heartbeat on the grate,
annunciatory, reverent, tell-tale: the tree-lights
alone shift their colored shadows on the walls.
Let him in, even if his hands are limned inside
with the death of the sun, bloodied and pale,
if, under his old coat, his shoulders settle
like restless ravens, if he smiles not wisely
at the star-scanned sky, but sidelong as scissors
snapped shut—he fingers absently at fir needles,
amber and smoke. Aurum, thus et myrrham
ei offerendo. Even if he tosses and catches
an apple, cold-flawed, not quite round as the world,
bid him welcome: in his pockets, up his sleeves,
he carries light. He will not speak of heights,
or falls. By firelight, his glance scalds,
but he will play solitaire among the glass-shine
and tinsel, quietly; entertained; aware.
Cathedral windows come and go in the branches.
The dragon-star burns westward through the dark.
With the dawn, he departs; the apple-core to lie
uncorrupted in the ashes until St. John's Eve,
but his price is paid. He leaves for his brother
seeds of fire in the snow and a garland of thorn
black as iron nails and berried with heart's blood,
yet flowered white in winter: a gift of souls
that harbor the daylight and the dark as one,
rooted, falling, rising, earthly, deathless.