So who will teach us not to fight?
We journey only in the night
to follow this unlikely light,
for really we three are in flight
from rampant evil, day-time bright
and rulers drunk on murderous might,
hypocrisy and smelly shite.
We look for something that is right,
That shafts our world with God’s delight
And then restores our blinded sight
To see our world from God’s great height,
Then with us dwelling in the dark.
That star, our wisdom, hits the mark.

Bare, jagged branches search the sky.
Stars prick the close black blue.
Grey shadow sheep hunch for the night.
Now, God, what will you do?

We want you to sort out our wars
and make our cities new.
We want good wine and apple pies
and lots of money too.

We want the world run on our terms,
Illusions screened, on cue.
We want all bad to turn to good
and problems to be few.

No magic in my universe.
Each present evil grew
Within your hearts and minds and eyes.
I’ll come and be with you.

You love, we kill; you care, we don’t.
We want you out of view.
We wave our wands and mutter spells
and hope you are not true.

My grass is rustled by the wind
and glistens white with dew.
Some joyful gasps, a tiny child.
My Son is now a Jew.

This Christmas night hangs heavy with our fate
And slows the heart to hibernate and wait.
Back to the womb we’ve gone to try again,
But come out self-aborted and the same.
We kill our innocence and throw the dice
To see how truth will turn out, at what price.
We try to stop, yet fear the New Year’ll come,
To carry on the evil momentum.
Hush! Hear again the cosmos cleaving cry,
first lungful, God with us, cattle nearby.
Those little hands which clutch the air call, “Friend”
To each of us, our failure nails amend.
With Mary’s software God is melting stones
And giving gentle life to dead men’s bones.

How difficult to face the holy intrusion,
to withstand the explosion of human pride
rocking in a cradle, the use of a maiden,
and the witness of animals.

The lights snake on the highway in the dark.
Each set of eyes explores his own two pools.
They drive for Christmas and the warmth
Of sentiment, to taste the feast of fools.

The slow infusion of God’s grace
Feeds open hearts in deadly need,
This earnest theatre, and the race
While mortals bleed.

Joy to the world. All industry
Proclaims it loud and bright.
The kids must learn, and we will sure
Indoctrinate them right.

He slipped beneath the sermons and the praise
To do and say his father’s will,
To crucify our death and with his life erase
Our isolation, and our hatred kill.

Strangled in calculations falsely guessed,
The print out of our lives clicks briskly on.
Before the little jigger comes to rest,
We know God’s sovereign purposes have won.