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Boxing Day 2013

Suddenly it's over

And the noise, and bustle and the expectation

Fade into wrapping paper, cold turkey and sprouts.

Peace, so sung about, descends

On our streets where lights still flash in silence,

Waiting for the New Year to erupt

And move us on to weeks of work,

Winter greyness and normality.

Shopping returns to the Tesco list

Of stuff we always buy,

Confounded only when they move the aisles.

And church? The slight excitement of the snow

Which trapped the preacher outside Tunbridge Wells

Is soon forgotten in the round

Of meetings, practices and minor arguments.

And Christmas? Just another passing phase -

A date, a day to get through like the rest?

Or did this Christmas shock us a bit,

Realising God is here with us,

Though we so often act

As if Jesus were for Christmas -

Not for life.

Brian Hick December 2013

©copyright Sally Hick 22.1.25

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Boxing Day

The cat is on the windowsill, the sky is turning blue

And somewhere up in heaven you are wondering what to do

Now evolution's settled and everything's in place

And you've turned the whole thing over to the restless human race.

Perhaps you've let things slide a bit, putting up your feet

After all the effort of creating in the heat

Worm and woodlouse, whale and whelk,

Reindeer, caribou, gnu and elk,

Lion, leopard, wolf and fox,

Sheep and goat and cow and ox;

And then the glory of your strife

Man and woman came to life.

But, wait a moment, was that really such a good idea

Given what has happened since you made us appear?

Just look at all the mess we've made, the violence, the war,

The massacres, the genocides, the trampling of the poor,

The arrogance, the cons, the lies, the tyranny, the law -

For even law can be abused and set against the few

Who would seek the greater good and make all things new.

Was mankind such a god idea when you look at what we've done

And so much of it simply in the name of having fun?

How many of us really yearn to fight the foreign foe

Or insist that our ideas are better, and we'd go

To any lengths to prove the point, even if we had

To murder half the human race before we all went mad?

If Jesus came with love and peace, why are we still fighting,

And if you are the only God, why is life so frightening,

With Jew and Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Zoroastrian, who

All claim to know you best, and know what is true?

Perhaps I'll wait the still small voice, the silence which will show

Me that you are still around, and which way I should go

In all this mess, this omni-shambles, which might just be okay

If I should sense, when all seems dark, a Light to show the Way.

Brian Hick December 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 1.1.25