It was Christmas Eve in the Abbey

And we sat on pilgrim pew

Tomb- hedged by The Oppressed

 Or History’s Victors blessed.

The candles were all flickering

On martyrs at their rest

And the politics of certainty

Cast shadows at my feet.

 

The heavy door gusted open

Like musket- hammered wood,

 I retraced intent to keep the warmth

But turned at frosted breath.

The sky outside brooded ditch dark black

And the planets shone a long way off

If I could wish upon a star

- Come Sputnik! Come Rover! Come Hubble!  Come Rabbit! -

Come Curiosity,

I’d travel through space-curved time.

 

And so it was -  Christmas Day in the stable

And yes; the ox and ass were there,

The plaster walls had bullet bracelets

And blood-tide splashed the floor.

The candles were all flickering

‘Cos the electricity was destroyed

And honest brokers met in secret

Debating the latest peace deal.

 

But the baby was crying hungry

And Mary had no milk

And I said to myself

 What a Terrible Life.

There was no hope at all

 In that squalid little room

Two thousand years of wrong

- Hush little baby  -

You’ll give the game away.

 

“Do you want to follow the old people and the boys?”

“Keep quiet for the Magi

Their magic they can do;

 But look, Little Future,

 They’re looking to you!”

Surprises come from strangest places

 And love no physical place at all

For I have travelled two thousand years

To meet  right at your door.