Advent
Advent
Just imagine
Lying in a crib of straw
Staring at a star
Hanging over the barn
That whistles
With the soughing wind
Prizing at the flimsy wood
That keeps the night at bay
Just imagine
Your future laid before you
In pre-ordained days
That smell of blood and betrayal
The multi-paternal conundrum
That plays upon your mind
As you carve wood
And practice your magic
Just imagine
The kiss upon your cheek
From a friend who would betray you
For silver salvation
The gravity of flesh
Dragged down penetrating nails
Hammered in your palms
And then you die
Just imagine
Nerves regenerating
The burning spray of blood
That floods your long dead carcass
And your eyes creak open
In a darkened tomb
Where they have lain you
In fervent salt tears
Just imagine
Ascending on chariots
Billowed from the clouds
While angels sing their praises
And disciples tell the world
That this death and resurrection
Foretells our own
Stairway to heaven
Just imagine
Lying in a shop doorway
A sleeping bag worn thin
Pale soup digesting
From a Christmas eve soup kitchen
In twentyfirst century Britain
Where shoppers rush
To get the presents in
Just imagine
If that Nazarene
In all his biblical glory
And tales of salvation
Expected his creation
To celebrate his birth
By putting spikes down
Where the homeless sleep
Just imagine
Lying in a bag of foam
Staring at a star
Hanging over the alley
That whistles
With the bitter wind
Prizing at the flimsy heat
That keeps a soul alive
If we can imagine magic tales
That give us hope
Surely we can conjure tales
That feed and clothe
The homeless strays
Who do not even have a barn
Star of wonder star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Harry O'Neill
Fri 16th Dec 2016 09:33
Ian,
Pre-Christmas preparations have stopped me getting right back to this one.
I like the simplicity of this (the way it goes through the tale and gets back to the state of things on earth)
I like that `and then you die` at the end of stanza three, and the telling of the resurrection in the next. we tend- not so much to forget, as to ignore - the fact that - like Christ - we have to die first.
I also like the way your repeated `Just imagine` is directed at the reader. (your first four stanzas have established that Christ had had a bit of experience of the later ones)
What I think would have made it more (modernly?) powerful would have been a reference to the mental agony which culminated in Christ`s `why have you forsaken me`)
As a Christian I would balk at the `magic` bit. But this is as open-an-eyed exposure of what the manger scene was all ultimately about as you could get.
Thanks.