Christmas Morning

With decorations at Christmas
old hopes come back
in the company of old delusions.

Fir trees with lights,
the singing of carols by boys,
the desire for snow…
are a childhood we desperately
cling to,

but the longed-for peace
the Christ child was promised to bring
has not been seen
in millennia of faithful waiting.

It's a great surprise,
given wounds still bleeding from war,
our hope revives
every Christmas,
every heartbreak morning.