In Persia, they watched from their towers
the majestic sweep of the stars — 
  believing, as all wise men do,
  in the great course of destiny,
  in the interconnectedness
        between the greater and the lesser
        between the mighty and the weak
        between a grain of sand and the highest mountain
        between a fish and the sea
        between all men
                no matter how powerful
                no matter how meek.

They had used their knowledge
     to construct palaces
     to determine when to plant
     to irrigate their fields.
They invented chess.
They believed there was more to know
                than they could know.
They sent their children
           to the very best schools.

And so a cry went out among them
        that first night
    when they saw
                the new star — 
    for a change in the heavens
  reflected a great upheaval
                in the order of the universe.
They took counsel among themselves.

This new star was a light in the darkness — 
it was different from the comets,
which presaged great disasters
        and the deaths of kings.
They did not know what to make of this new star,
     bright though it was,
    born in the last month of autumn,
but it was almost overhead,
   but slightly to the west, when the sun set.
They decided to undertake a journey
   to find for themselves
                what the star portended.
They selected three of them
         to go as emissaries.
They made a caravan
to carry their tents, food, supplies,
   astrological charts, and diversions.
They hired men,
        to stand guard,
        to drive their horses.
And they loaded two mules — 
  one with gold, frankincense,
                and myrrh — 
        gifts for a king — 
 the other with a book of prayers, water,
        lamp oil, and wine — 
           in order to pray
          for the ablution, the cleansing,
                of their people.

They crossed through kingdoms
        and dined with princes
   and made the customary bribes
    to ensure their safe passage,
until, at last, they came to Jerusalem,
    the capitol
                of Judea — 
and they knew they were near their goal,
both from the fact that the new star
                was almost directly overhead,
and that Judea bordered the sea.

They dined with Herod,
who believed in the power of stars
and in keeping Rome appeased.
Herod asked them
        what the birth of the new star
                   would mean?
The three emissaries
    knew better
        than to profess their confusion.
"A great change is among us,"
    they said to him.
"Our knowledge tells is that this represents a birth
                of a great king,
                an empire builder,
                who will reunite Judea and Persia
                       and all of the lands in between,
                in an empire greater than Darius's
                        and greater, still, than the Greeks',
                and that this king
                        will be known as a king of kings."
Herod let the wise men leave
        but with mixed feelings — 
  his own astrologers had said no such thing.
Later, upon learning
  that the emissaries had gone to Bethlehem,
home of the house of David,
be became fearful of the promise
        of a new king of kings
   and had every child of Bethlehem
                under the age of two
          massacred.

But even forknowledge
      of that event
did not stop them
        from seeing what could be seen,
for when they had stopped for the nighth
they could see that the new star
        was directly above them
and they heard an infant's cry
and they heard the sounds of sheep
        and the excited sounds of shepherds.
And they were drawn into the stable
          next to the inn
                at the edge of the town.
  They talked to the father
                for some minutes
     and then talked among themselves.

"The child is a bastard,
   but Joseph is descended
      from the kings of Israel."
"See, see how she suckles him — 
   her eyes are full of love."
"Even Joseph loves this boy — 
  there is no anger
          with his wife."
"It is a beautiful thing to witness
   on this cold, desolate night,
     this love, this palpable love."
"And this is, is it not,
   Zoroaster's birthday." — 
                and they agreed, it was.

Being wise men, and knowing that Joseph
   loved Mary, no matter who the child's
    father was,
and that Mary loved this child
   who begat
      this bright star,
they gave their gifts
   as if they were given to a king:
a box of gold, a box of frankincense,
   vases of myrrh.

They decided to leave, for Persia,
    that very night — 
but without knowing
        what type of king
    this new child would be,
outside of the stable,
                away from the sheep, the shepherds,
                        and the cries of
                   the newborn boy,
the three wise men lit the lamp oil,
        poured the wine
                        onto the ground,
                washed with the water,
           and prayed
                for the ablution
                        of their people.