Outwitted, outmanoeuvred,
Herod unleashes terror.
Revenge, outraged, ventures out,
Unresisted, unrestrained.
Many are slaughtered to slay the One:
The One survives to save the many.
This is one of a cycle of seven poems by Graham Kings on the Magi, for Andrew Wheeler's Book, ‘Desire of the Nations: The Magi, their journey and the Child’ (Seismos Press, 2015), written at Abbotsbury Swannery, Sub-Tropical Gardens and Chesil Beach, Dorset, 1-2 July 2015.
The Rt Revd Dr Graham Kings is Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Ely and Research Associate at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide.