Bethlehem – Kate Bluett

What will you say to the mothers? What angels did you send to them? You saved your own son, but no others, that midnight in Bethlehem. Oh, we may call them your martyrs, the innocents slaughtered by men, but how can we call you their Father, who left them in Bethlehem? This love that would let us destroy us that freedom might not be hemmed in, and yet, it's this love that would join us a-weeping in Bethlehem. It won't lift a finger to save us from cruel and powerful men, yet it will shift heaven to raise us someday after Bethlehem. But not 'til it, too, has been slaughtered and battered and ravaged by sin, forsaken by even the Father long decades from Bethlehem. Then lift up your voices, you mothers; you fathers, cry out, and again, for heaven looks down and it shudders to see us in Bethlehem.

For Kara Dahl. To the tune ST. LOUIS (REDNER) (“O Little Town of Bethlehem”):

The rowdy streets of Bethlehem
are full of noise and light,
and no one in the crowded inn
gets any sleep tonight:
They dice and shout their winnings
while notes of pure delight
are lost beneath the raucous din
that overflows the night.

The doorways spill into the streets;
the cups spill over wine.
The alleys echo dancing beats;
steps stumble out of time.
The song gives way to bleatings
among the sheep and swine,
and that gives way to something sweet,
some music more divine:

Where angels sing above the hills
as shepherds stand in awe,
the startled flocks, they snort and mill
beneath the strangest star.
And then, the whole world stilling,
and infant wails afar,
'til all the night with music fills
that spills from every bar.

And over all the raucous noise
that pours from every inn,
as one the shepherds lift their voice
and shout above the din:
“Come with us! Come rejoicing
while angels sing 'Amen'!
For all the world is filled with joys
tonight in Bethlehem!”

Tag: Bethlehem

After Bethlehem

Tonight In Bethlehem