The Visitor (Poetry)

A pale stranger came a-knocking
and he stood outside my door
he looked careworn, he looked ragged
he looked hungry, cold and poor

I said ‘What is it you’re selling?’
as he looked me in the eye
and a single snowflake tumbled
from a grey December sky

He looked sad but he said nothing
and I thought he might be mute
for he shook his head and shivered
in his threadbare shabby suit

There was something so familiar
as I gazed upon his face
for he had this soft expression —
part humility, part grace

Then he sighed with such deep longing
that a voice cried out within
‘You must save him from the winter’s chill —
invite this stranger in!’

So I smiled and nodded to him
and I said ‘Please come inside’
but he hovered on the threshold
though my door was open wide

Then I took his arm quite gently
and I led him down the hall
bright with Christmas decorations
on a tree that towered tall

And he gasped in admiration
and his face shone at the sight
of a host of plastic angels
and a hundred flashing lights

He pointed to a tinsel star
beaming down pretended-gold
on a group of figures gathered
in a stable bare and cold

For a moment I was spellbound —
I could hear far carolling
sense the message cross the desert
spreading joy to everything

Then the man who stood beside me
shed the grey-spun rags he wore
as, clothed anew in shining robes
he rose slowly off the floor

To the rhythm of his wing-beats
the sweet allelujahs rang
and the air reverberated
as the whole of Heaven sang

And the walls dissolved around me
I was in some foreign land
on a hillside bathed in moonlight
fields of sheep on either hand

A sleeping town stretched below me
weary camels on the road
as three travellers came searching
for a newborn king’s abode

Like a play watched from the darkness
I then witnessed it unfold
act by act — the setting perfect
and just as the Word foretold

From the shadows in the stable
I could glimpse them crowded round
smell the hay, the musk of cattle
and their soothing, lowing sound

Hear above the general murmur
one so-human infant cry
as his mother calmed him gently
with an ancient lullaby

There were wise men, there were shepherds
scores of angels ranged on high
Joy and Peace packed to the rafters
as the scriptures testify

Love revealed in that one moment
bright as flame before it’s spent
gave the key to that first Christmas
and the truth of what it meant

*

I found myself alone again
beside the towering tree
the stranger had left one glowing gift
that warmed the heart of me