a poem...

This is one I wrote in 2006 if my notes are correct. I thought it apt for the night.

Nativity



An old man stares, as in a trance;
with cracking joints he bends down low,
laughs and sobs at love’s mischance –
what men had lost through guile, they’ll know
at last in dereliction, one
child he’ll pierce with his own lance
and nails; he glances up – the stars look on
while drifting in the blank expanse –
and, cold, he flinches at the blow
in the savage, silent night.

She rests as though a torn up sack
which, tossed aside, a total loss,
its burlap stitching frayed from lack
of care, is left to mice as dross;
but when she rises, holds her child
at last, her son, her Lord, whose rack
this birth prepares, she feels such mild
and calming pangs, while, through the black,
she sees true light with darkness cross
in the savage, silent night.

The moon, though pure, yet hides in shame
before that newborn human face
streaked with tears and blood, that lame
and shit-stained flesh which yields pure grace;
o hear how helpless is this Lord
who still commands the ranks of flame,
those ministers who hear his word –
God wails, pukes; he bears our blame
to put us, finally, in our place
in the savage, silent night.

The world’s one root and only friend
falls still at last.  He sleeps, delight
steals up and takes them, and they bend
once more in prayer to stand aright
in the savage, silent night.