A Tale of Travelling Magi - Part 1



Beginnings


Come, join us on a journey
as we travel with old friends:
despite the various twists and turns
we know how this one ends.

But, haste not to the ending;
our tale's not yet begun.
We'll start at a beginning
and end when story done.

Our tale is not quite history
(nor is it make believe)
There's some poetic licence
yet truth you can perceive.

So, for our storytelling
we travel back in time
to a point in history
when Rome was at her prime.

It's not that ancient city
on which we now converge
but a town, remote and distant,
on an eastern desert verge:

Darkness: the blackest blackness!
Fragmented sparks of light
illuminating dwellings
into the deepest night.

Aside the town, a rocky place
and here we find, stargazing
magi, watching the heavens,
portents and signs appraising.

A great excitement permeates
the astrological air
as seasoned watchmen of the night
stand opened-mouth and stare.

Their charts abandoned, gaze transfixed,
euphoria increased.
Before their eyes had just appeared
a new star in the East.

"What does this mean? What great event
is foreshadowed by this thing?"
In reverence, Balthazar intones,
"There is a new-born king."

© Simon Wright - Dedicated to Estelle




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