A Christmas Candling

Tonight
window-ledged
one fragile-winged flame
flutters toward a world moth-hungry for light.

Tonight, here, what difference could it make?
One child-candle kindling to warm,
mere straw in the wind
firing the wick in the storm
that for an instant
makes the whole world
seem suddenly
stable.

DANIEL SKACH-MILLS is a former Trappist monk and pastoral counselor studying at St. Martin's College in Lacey, Washington.