too soon the sun’s rays slide
over earth’s edge
leaving me orphaned,
slumped in darkness
beside my window.

Deep into December, darkness drags me
into the abyss,
like Jonah in the belly of the whale, I wrap my arms
around myself, and shiver. My memory scans a litany
of shortcomings.
Into this bleakness came light
birthed in a stable .
So lowly he came to an unsuspecting world.
That one infant, the cure for aloneness;
the joy of wounded hearts.