Another Christmas Story

A donkey, a dog, and a yellow cat
were the very first visitors that quietly sat
(though, of course, the donkey by the manger stood
since, before the baby, it had held its food)
and a curious lamb that the shepherds brought,
and a few blessed men who in time were caught,
being born of woman and so had pressed
their mouths, like Jesus, to mothers’ breasts
as Jesus does to his mother’s now.

Even as angels sang of peace
and a kingdom of love pure as a dove
there, up above in a still dark sky
a raven croaked that this child would die
a criminal’s death on a rough hewn cross
that would usher in such death and loss
that still today has reached no end
in spite of the promise each birth portends.