You Shepherds

You
Who plead the soil
Who midwife earth’s becoming
From fallowness
From frailty.

You
Who pray the womb
Who resuscitate the orphan
Who burden disease
Who give beyond the grave.

You
Who gaze at sunflowers
Through welded window bars
Who cling the bottom rung
Who suffer violence.

You empty-handed
You servants
You slaves
You

Shepherds:

Be still
Your trembling.
Annul
Your grief.
Witness this thrill lift the dawn
And rain your weariness.

Ave Sopheary
Ave Fatima
Ave Deng
Ave Baptiste
Ave Sonia
Ave.

For unto you
Today
Your Liberator

Is born.

sjb
24.12.09
Picture by Kerstin Pless