I know I should be writing rhymes
Of cheery Christmas greeting
Poems that lift the spirit
Because that spirit’s fleeting
Soon we’ll rise to celebrate
The Lord and Savior’s birth
Imagining his kingdom
And the chance of peace on earth
But everywhere I look
I only see the signs of battle
The taste of bitter breezes
And I hear the sabers rattle
Households gripped with terror
As the hostages are seized
Nations launching carnage
That we thought could be appeased
Stalemates mainly deadlier
And ancient hatreds growing
It doesn’t take a prophet
To imagine where we’re going
But before I grow despairing or
I bow my heard to mourn
I think of the conditions
In the year that Christ was born
There were plagues besetting Egypt
Wars between the states of Greece
Rebellion sweeping India
With little hope of peace
Conquest or secession
Set ablaze be young pretenders
Brutal senseless slaughter
Of attackers and defenders
And so, if into such a world
So filled with blood and scars
Perhaps The Prince of Peace
Can touch a planet such as ours
Remember as you tremble
Or seek shelter from the fight
It was He who conquered chaos
There in Bethlehem one night