Villanelle # 30

From the initial moment of surprise

By piercing light they never had expected,

The Magi mulled the meaning of the skies.

Was the betrayal worse, or were the lies?

What in her swelling belly he’d detected,

Joseph couldn’t find in Mary’s eyes,

And that was puzzling. Puzzling to the Wise

Men were their stumbling thoughts as they reflected

Deeply on the meaning of the skies.

Joseph made them gentle, his good-byes,

Turned sadly from the girl he had selected,

Still haunted by the tears that filled her eyes.

Who knows what led those scholars to surmise

The answer to the problem they’d dissected

And journey toward the meaning of the skies?

An angel and his faith made Joseph prize

The woman he had earlier rejected.

The Magi mulled the meaning of the skies,

But Joseph saw the star in Mary’s eyes.