Photo by Courtney Chestnut on Unsplash

Wasn’t it always his undying

Love first attracted us

And not that rogue star

Made followers—nor the

Crèche and its accoutrements

(Or the bloody tree)

The dark day itself spent alone

With nary the holy family—

And yet came next morning—none

Too soon—

And the stoning of Stephen

Seeing that old man in deep snow

Caroling—like the image of poor Christ

Right from Dostoyevsky—

Inviting him into paradise.

Stephen Rybicki is a poet and academic librarian on the faculty of Macomb Community College, and the author of the reference work, Abbreviations: A Reverse Guide to Standard and Generally Accepted Abbreviated Forms. He lives in Romeo, Michigan.

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Published in the December 2019 issue: View Contents
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