Aren’t we enlarged
by the scale of what we’re able
to desire? Everything,
    the choir insists,

    might flame;
inside these wrappings
burns another, brighter life,
    quickened, now,

    by song: hear how
it cascades, in overlapping,
lapidary waves of praise? Still time.
    Still time to change.

Mark Doty, “Messiah (Christmas Portions)”, in Sweet Machine