It's Christmas Time in the City

This is something I wrote last year, but didn't share until now...a little rough to highlight the topic.

and there were living nearby

gang leaders

keeping watch

over their hookers by night,

shooting up

those last doses of heroin

into their hungry veins--

when a red blinking light

shone around them,

and they were sore afraid.

then the trooper

cuffed their wrists

and led them off

past a white-bearded man

in a jolly red suit

and an oblivious group

of well-dressed suburbanites

singing carols about peace on earth.

but there is no peace

in the hood,

where addiction lingers

and violence thrives

and where gonorrhea spreads

more quickly

than gifts and good cheer.

maybe this broken city of angels

needs a homeless man

to move in

and to take every bullet

upon his own tired flesh--

to die

for the bloods

and the crips

and the schizophrenic man

hearing voices

in the alleyway

and the poor unwed mother

about to sacrifice

the growing child in her womb.

city sidewalks

busy sidewalks

dressed in the blood

of the last hundred years

and the burning tears

of its many lost sons.

tonight

in the city of

a shepherd-king

there is born a savior

who will

give sight to the blind

and strength to the crippled.

and hope

for the hood.

glory to God

in the highest

and on earth

peace--

let us go

and see this thing

which has

been made known

to us.