Carol for the Last Christmas Eve

The first night, the first night,

The night that Christ was born,

His mother looked in his eyes and saw

Her maker in her son.

The twelfth night, the twelfth night,

After Christ was born,

The Wise Men found the child and knew

Their search has just begun.

Eleven thousand, two fifty nights,

After Christ was born,

A dead man hung in the child's light

And the sun went down at noon.

Six hundred thousand or thereabout nights,

After Christ was born,

I look at you and you look at me

But the sky is too dark for us to see

And the world waits for the sun.

But the last night, the last night,

Since ever Christ was born,

What his mother knew will be known again,

And what was found by the Three Wise Men,

And the sun will rise and so may we,

On the last morn, on Christmas morn,

Umpteen hundred and eternity.

~Norman Nicholson