THE TREE TOPPER

– A Bedtime Story

It was an angel --- not a flying reindeer ---

descending comet-like toward the earth

at great speed,

dipping over the midnight rooftops

in a spasm of wingbeats, down a chimney

and into the shadows of the house,

resting at last in the spiky branches

of a decorated tree, breathing there

among the metallic bells and ceramic apples,

nesting beside the doves of crystal,

such a tiny thing, and yet her presence

completed the festive ensemble. She sacrificed

a life in heaven to be a Christmas ornament

and a sign to the household, an icon of hope,

a yearly reminder of that first Noel,

earning her a special place at the very top

of the tree, this emmisary angel

in her cottonball gown with the golden sprinkles,

blowing her silent trumpet,

looking very much the way the sun does

when it rises over the newfallen snow,

when the whole earth seems to wear a halo.

By Lisa Lindsey