on the third night of christmas

it was a cold and frosty night.  the church was decorated with pine and fir boughs, lit with 900 tea lights.  piano music by Philip Glass.

i carried a handful of paperwhites and we promised to love each other.  there was chocolate cake and Japanese poems.

we planted a seed that dark night.  and the seed has grown into a tree fed by underground streams.  it is a tree full of birdsong.