There were only two of them — 
they were business men from Jordan
who made their living
        selling cloth and beer, frankincense and myrrh.
In Jerusalem, there was some panic
  about the new star,
  which was bright,
  and shone almost directly overhead.
Changes in the heavens suggested
                tumultuous things.
A royal astrologer, in a frenzied panic,
 thought the star meant
 that the throne
        would return to the House of David.
The business men were well-connected
      in Jerusalem
and knew, if they came across any valuable information,
they would be well-rewarded.

They took their wagon of goods
towards Beersheba,
determined to stop at each town and village
   and sell their wares
                along the way.
That night, they stopped in Bethlehem,
  and put their horses in the stable
        ate their dinner
      and after talking for a while
    went to sleep in their wagon.

They awoke in a commotion.
   Four or five shepherds were moving about
  fetching pails of water
  talking about starting a fire
 in the barn — in the barn? — 
the two merchants set out to investigate — 
to find
   a man holding his wife's hand
as she struggled
                with child birth.
The two were sitting in a great pile of straw
which had been scattered to make a bed.
"You need a midwife," one of the merchants said, alarmed.
The man, his name was Joseph,
said a farmboy, a shepherd,
had gone to fetch one — 
"It's a shame we have to do this here,"
he said, "but the inn was full up."
The shepherds were building a fire
and put a pot on it,
to heat some water — 
it was a cold night.
The two wise merchants, asked if there was
        anything they could do,
        and then waited outside.
"A hard time of year, to bear a child,"
  they thought.

An hour or two passed
  and the shepherd returned
to say that the midwife
          was attending another birth.
The woman, Mary, was screaming.
No man was inside.
  No one wanted to look at her
   when she screamed like that.

After a while, the screaming stopped,
  and there were the cries of a baby,
   a newborn boy.
The men went into the stable
  and congratulated Joseph
and found their hearts melting,
                one by one
                  each and all,
by the strength
        of Mary's love
           for her newborn child — 
           suckling at her breast.

The two men from Jordan, Joseph,
  the shepherds
had done a lot of talking that evening,
and the two wise men
  learned that Joseph
       was a descendent of David
        and a carpenter.
The men, they all prayed
           several times that night,
for the health of the child,
 to praise god,
to praise even being alive.
The merchants gave Joseph some advice,
after learning that the boy
  was Joseph's first son,
and they told him too
about Herod's fear
                of the new star — 
go to Egypt, they advised,
at least until Herod is dead.
And they gave Joseph and Mary
a little bit of what they had,
        a little gold,
some frankincense for their hearth
  and some myrrh
        as a balm
  for the newborn boy.

The next day, the two wise men from Jordan
went down the road towards Hebron
marvelling at the miracles
  of birth
    and motherly love,
thankful
  that they too
      had been so loved.