When Love Came Down

When love came down to dwell with us -- to wake and sleep, to work and play, to live and die, as one with us -- we turned cold-away, nailed shut our hearts, and sledged along in the darkened commerce of our daily lives. We followed no bright-hoped star at night, nor woke to tendered mercy at dawn. We valued none the straw nor stone where love was laid, was laid to rest, for us, for us. Yet love was love, from first to last, through life and death then life again, to turn our straw, to change our stone, from poor rough things to coin of light, to endless count of golden days.