Day 18 -- An Advent Poem

Newtown Candles

Shots ring out o'er Bethlehem this Advent night.
Passover the stable with the bleating baby boy,
Passover the grassy knolls of dreamy sheep outside town,
Passover the red doorposts of wise men,
Passover darkened shopping malls and silent campuses,
Passover scattered crayons and dropped phonics books,
Passover empty stockings and empty hearts,
Passover Calvary itself.

I thought,
I thought after we hung Him on the tree,
I thought surely
We'd rise up and say, "Enough as enough!
Look where all this has gotten us!
We've shot down Love itself
And sentenced to death our only God.
Never Again!
never again."

I thought it,
But yet
we still wait.

Still we wait
outside Bethlehem,
under angel stars moaning,
"O come, o come Emmanuel."