A Nativity in the Palestinian Territory

O’ little town of Bethlehem in Palestine, just beyond the wall, where Shepherds watch their flocks by night now guided by a star or winking satellite or drone in flight.  

Burnt and bombed.  

Where babies never get a chance to grow up to be saviours.  

In the midst of occupation
and resistance and fleeing
and seeking asylum and governments built on power  

and a world built on atrocity,  

the inequality of patriarchy.  

In the midst of wrapping paper and gift.  

Mother Mary, she comes to me. 

By Joel McKerrow, a writer, speaker, educator, community arts worker and one of Australia’s most successful internationally touring performance poets on the Insights site  (Uniting Church).