Nearing the end
Searching for light
New beginning at the bend
Laguna fiber tested
By last year’s deeds
Insufficient to lead
Us to 2018
As intruders in others’ lives,
Offenders of sensibilities,
Abusers of words, Forgetting
Ancient poetry,
Holy scriptures,
Western history
Trapped in this body
The morgue not far
Grave digging, gold digging
Hurrying to make a legacy
Un-Christian apprentice,
His kingdom
A theology of turmoil
Decorating the birth of Jesus
With 100 Christmas trees
His lips and hips aligned,
Dancing to delusional sounds
Ego gyrates and moves
Salvation for the nation
In morality of New Testament
Not garlands, tinsel or ornaments
We crippled soldiers trudging in a starship
On surf and gravel
Smother our cries
Our bodies alert, eyes wide
Pretending it’s not a farce,
Hoping to escape
Next fire, earthquake, hurricane
The choice to act is ours
Neglecting December 25th
When God became man
Prince of Peace
Conceived immaculately
Pronounced…
Theft, murder, jealousy
Hypocrisy, tyranny, cruelty
Weapons and armies—
Human sins
Elegant hypocrisy from
Corporate kings
British petroleum, American tobacco
Belgian rubber and cocoa
With military precision
Shatter statues, monuments, temples, mosques
With Raytheon bombs
But Puerto Rican sugarcane,
Sweetening our pies and cakes
Tropicana oranges, Dole bananas
Plucked by calloused hands,
Of converted peasants
Skin obsidian black
Harvesting, plowing congregants
Living the gospel in huts and shacks
Internalizing Missionary-planted
Bible verses
Deciphering Cain and Abel
Sunday spent in grand cathedrals
Digesting sermons of
Our Savior, His
Crown of thorns and pierced hands
Salvation…if we teach and preach
Open that Book
Dismiss sleigh bells, snowmen, reindeer,
Pagan candy
Because money worship mimics idolatry
To stop stars that weep—
Humble thyself, have mercy
Judge not, forgive
Love neighbors as ourselves
Be free of earthly things
Practice the tenets we know
Already
Honor the meaning of
Trinity and nativity
Resident Anita Razin immigrated from England to California with her family in 1975. She’s the mother of two girls. She spends her time working with refugees and immigrants. She’s passionate about reading, writing and eating.
