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).