Last Christmas Post Till Next Year

On the back of Bill Mallonee's Yonder Shines the Infant Light CD cover, I read this poem I thought I'd share. It captures the emotion and humanity of the Christmas story as close to the way I know and think about it as anything I've read. It's called Burden. (emphasis below I added)

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There came in darkest moment known
the star of hope in cosmos deep
over a faltering donkey bearing
a girl, wide-eyed and undone,
asking why and what she had done wrong
that miracles should be given birth
in stable muck and straw.

And the man who had trusted dreams
to trust this girl
choked back desperation
at her clenched-jaw groans.
What had he done wrong? A lack of foresight?
His City of David with family and friends everywhere,
but no room for such dubious characters tonight.
Bastard babies should be born in barns.

His little voice was like a cat mewing,
His body tender and red with a black swirl
on His velvet scalp.

This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen,
she thought as tired tears ran down her cheeks.
She'd failed. Given a gift and already it had gone awry.
But then they came, the disheveled crew
in from the fields, smelling of wood smoke and dung.
Their eyes hungry and expectant,
their hunger age-old and deep,
they fell down in the straw,
tearful and praising.
And suddenly the truth of this perfect birth
dawned on her...
stables were where shepherd worshiped;
where the poor and outcast could approach their salvation.

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Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Bill Mallonee