Christmas Once Again
And then, of course, there’s poverty,
Which goes with incapacity
Of people – stumbling to the cliff
Here, in this place few people fit –Who try to keep their game-face on,
With hope and ways of coping gone;
Who deeply wish to thrive somehow;
Who stumble on from row to row –Whose limits showed up years ago,
With jobs beyond where they could go;
The rest now gone to poorer lands,
Where skill is cheap from labor’s hands.Just yesterday I showed a way
As actions mixed with words – each day
A drip, then trickle, stream, then flood,
Will wear away that dam of mud –And make quite clear what we all know,
Veneer around is just for show
To cover up the misery
Which mixes with such poverty.The churches do not wish to view
Effects of actions Christ would do
If He were in this context now,
(Or if He is, through us, somehow) –For we can barely cope ourselves;
Face that abyss, encroaching hell
Of desperation – dare not breach
That dam which holds that sea of need.That’s social work – get folks to keep
Within that dam – psychiatry
To drug submission, ease the pain
Of poverty – our social game.I clear recall when shifted down –
In lower tier the service found
Which medics give to those in need,
Who live in dire poverty.It clever was – no words bespoke
The practice there, lest dam be broke,
And drip, to trickle, stream, and tide,
Sweep o’er the rich, where we reside.The dam stood firm, words of reprieve
Conveyed me from that sea of need,
Up over massive earthen dam
To where we privileged still stand.Lord, I can’t hide my thoughts from there,
Now viewing life from in the air;
I’ve seen both sides, the rich, the poor,
It’s of a piece – one common sewer.And that’s what’s new for me today –
A view released from “we” and “they”;
Freed up to do Your will, O Lord,
Empowered, resourced, as it is heard.A simple way of seeing things;
A changed perspective new way brings;
Unlike Ms. Bondar out in space,
There we abide, unlike her case.And yet, as we fulfill Your will,
We’re here, and yet in heaven still;
Maintain that focus, point of view,
And way of doing life in You.In that, transcending East and West,
And North and South – we do our best
To do Your bidding here on Earth,
Embody thus your second birth.navigation