A Modern Christmas

The angels descended with shining faces
singing GLORIA in a chorus of a thousand voices
but the shepherds took for granted
the special FX and the full surround sound
and they found the Child and His Mother
in a stable
the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes
and they felt a kind of emotional pity
as when they saw photos of starving orphans
in Africa
and they said

Sorry but we have nothing to give
only escalating piles of debt
mortgage and insurance payments
ever-increasing taxes
and joyless jobs that we work from 9 to 5
for the rich overlords who take from us
our petty gains

We cannot afford anything
not even the 1.5 children who baffle us
with their strange fashions and desires
and who are baffled by us in return
who will one day grow into joyless workers
and put us away in our old age
as men put down a sick dog

We have nothing to offer
but the ennui of those who rush madly
from distraction to distraction
and the casual adulteries
offhand murders
the sickly sweet vices of worn-out lusts
the enthralling fascination with illusory violence
and the sleepless nights spent trying to forget
what we are and what we have become

And the Child looked on them
with the wise eyes of One who has seen all things
and He said
I will take these things from you
though the weight of them be more than the world's weight
My shoulders will not break under them

And the shepherds asked
But if you take them away from us
what will we have?
And the Child said

Peace