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As all gods do

you fell

like a slowly toppling brazier

of glowing coal

and at your back

the attendant night

cautious, calm, polite

unfolds and spreads

its protective cape

across every hill and vale,

its servant hands

smoothing daylong threads

those shreds of light,

those lines of shade

into a soothing cloth,

a felted yin and yang.

Beyond the edge

of this threshold bed

an altar glows

with the departing steps

of a regent fled

his flight revealed

in a line of dying flame,

dusty peach and sooted amber

weary embers scraped into the sea,

and now the land will sleep

and souls find strength

by trusting the valet darkness

to hold the door secure

till the Prince of light returns.

[Kristin Jack is the Asia Coordinator of Servants. He and his family lived in Cambodia for 17 years. A book of his poetry, entitled 'Poetry and Prophecy' has just come out and is available from Servants.]