To lie in the dark and ask for day. To name the unborn
daughter Dawn, the shortest street Aurora. O Oriens:
Light that breaks, that cracks the void; match for God
to phosphoresce with a gust of words. O Dayspring:
eruption of sunup, bright geyser that seasons tug
to either side of the equinox along a convex east.

O come, O come, Emmanuel: radiance unending,
radiance being and unbegun; O Come, Emmanuel,
Light that breaks, braking the day; Come, darkness
at noon and Morning Star. Come, sun in a womb,
pillar of fire, infant defiant of the very astronomy
he foreordained, breaker of stars’ staid patterns.
To dazzle the magi. To flood the tomb in light.

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash