(x = space)

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Saint Light

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Lucia

Giving birth

In spirit

And calendar

To solstice

Then to Christmas

The festivals of days

Sung by ancient voices

Variously doctrinaire

Also enculturated

Now

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Santa Lucia

Lights

On wreaths

In Scandinavia

Illumined

In other nations

Other places

Say

In Syracuse

On Sicily

Where

Then

And throughout

There is

The song

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Special food

(everywhere)

As well

To match the time

The separation

From

Ordinary drives

Today

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Christian

And also enculturated

Much like the season

We inhabit

Of so many

Days

The stories

With their membership

On hearing

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Close to solstice

So also for

The timing

Of these broader days

Say longer nights

For fears

In all of this

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Small lights in the darkness

‘Til banks of angels

Set the stars on fire with

Announcements

x

Here is the day

Here is the sky

Fear not

Winter is not the end

We promise spring

With longer days

Dressed

Inside

Outside

Green and health

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So for these colder days

To north

And scalding days to south

We without angels

Maybe

Maybe offer news

As gospel

Good news

And

Oh

So many stories

To tell each other

Through

Seasons’ hardships

And hard feelings

x

Also then

Some for

In fact

Bonfires

Like the angels and the stars

Though mostly

For the axis of the Earth

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The smaller lights will do

But sometimes large

For dancing near

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‘Til later on

In spring

And then the fall

The equinox secure

The balance in

All better things

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on Santa Lucia Day

(13 December 2023)

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C L Couch

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Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

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