Giunse per Maria il tempo di partorire;

ed essa diede alla luce un figlio...

                                           (Luke 2: 6–7)

Mary didn’t merely bring Him forth

in winter words and murk of night,

but idiom as bright as birth:   

                  She gave Him to the light.

And the event is different: it’s translated

into sunlight—into words that say

the same thing but illuminated,

                  turning night to day.

The words themselves become evangelists.

Telling the tale, they turn a phrase

—with verbal photosynthesis—

                  into an act of praise.