Orthodox Christmas Eve

What am I doing here with all these Greeks?

Hoping, perhaps, at midnight Christmas Eve,

The unintelligible tongue God speaks

Will summon even those who don't believe

To Mary's manger.  Now the Virgin bears

The Master in the cave.  As light through glass

He passes from her body.  Joseph dares

Believe the story; I can let it pass.

The incense rises like the church's breath

Into a frosty world.  This night of birth

Swells to a tide that tosses me past death.

But tides recede—I know this moment's worth.

If love of beauty were the same as faith,

I'd walk in heaven with my feet on earth.

Gail White

From The Price of Everything, The Edwin Mellen
Press, © 2001.  Originally printed in Edge City
Review.  Reprinted by permission of the author.