All the Light This First of December

Light up the night with the luster 

of four hundred billion suns, to bring home 

the lost; a host of names long forgotten.

Adder, conker, and fern, kingfisher, 

otter, wren, like us, are made of star-stuff, too. 

On earth, we are all the light we couldn’t see 

making our way to each other, 

a quiver in a river of stars. 

Save a place at the table for one 

who is coming home, say grace, a blessing 

over bread and doorstead and star-salted sky. 

Here’s a lullaby of good tidings, 

a beacon, bright and bluish-white, 

house full of light, a whole constellation.