I am Balthazar...

I wrote this poem many years ago - at this stage of our journey, it seems appropriate...

I am Balthazar: where others kneel, I stand,
And over multitudes I rule in my fair land.
`Tis not for thy Kingship that I stand in awe,
Nor to curry favour should e’er thy word be law.
For no man do I bend my knee or lower my eye,
Be he foreign King or Son of God; such am I.
A man of science, I seek truth above all things.
By night I read the omens that the stars may bring.
Of late thy life was spread before my eyes,
Writ in blood and treachery across the skies.
Poor King, I see thy death in wretchedness and pain,
By friends betrayed, to die, and die again.
It moves my heart that I, alone, should know,
The doom another King must suffer so.
Take then, this bitter myrhh: may Allah’s hand
Guide thee on thy fateful steps through David’s land.
Now I stand apart, this is as it must be.
Those I rule shall never kneel to thee.