Feast of the Holy Family, Within the Octave of Christmas
Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt…
for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. KJV, Matthew 2:13
And, as told, Joseph escaped the tyrant’s
Grasp, with his wife and infant son.
But what about the children
Whose fathers did not dream,
The not-so-lucky little boys of Bethlehem,
Whose blood still flows in bitter tears?
Lights now hang merrily on our own
Window frames, holly wreaths on our doors,
Reveling in the joy of Christmas,
The startling midnight clarity of a world
Dividing into before and after,
God’s brazen flight into Time.
Shibboleths against another slaughter
Of innocents? Our daughters and sons
Spared another year? While we celebrate,
In the gift of a Son,
This unimaginable rent of worlds?
Maryanne Hannan has published poetry in both ALL SHALL BE WELL: A POETRY ANTHOLOGY FOR JULIAN OF NORWICH and THIN PLACES & SACRED SPACES. A resident of upstate New York, USA, she is the author of ROCKING LIKE IT’S ALL INTERMEZZO; 21ST CENTURY RESPONSORIALS.
Amethyst Review 