The darkness at birth

Going into the darkness of the dream

Afraid to sleep in the world

Where dark Satan stands smiling by Jesus cradle

He couldn’t wait for the holy wars but how to have Jesus put to death as soon as it was clear who he was

Then his people were degraded and sent into the dark

The demons outnumbered the angels and we didn’t know because we couldn’t see them

But when we’re old we get second sight and we know the Shadows and the darkness.

We bear all this because we don’t want our children to know

Now even my children are old but no wiser

Learning is so slow and shedding blood so easy

No more will the Bedouins dwell in the desert

Evoking the beauty, the stars so far away,
I like to watch geese at the end of day.
Patterns and poems disclose other worlds.
Feel the hand of a baby with the fingers all curled

See the trust and the smile when the mother is home,
To create entire worlds for the one she has borne.
For chaos and panic or not far away
Even in adults who don’t care to say.

The little hands touch me so deeply, so well;
How come the world is diving to hell?
How can we kill little wains by the score
Was it for this that I opened your door?

Was it for this that love electrified us,
And we were lost in each other, in the holy white dove.
Was it for war that we gave love our wombs
Making more soldiers and filling more tombs?

The bombs are a-loading they’re having parades.
It’s not North Korea, it’s Washington, dude.
Let the tanks roll on Corrie and the Bedouin tribes.
Let the allies laugh blindly as the Lord Jesus dies.

O take me, dear mother.Please take me away
I can’t see no point in saying my prayers.
The leaders’ religions are making God frown.
The desert is empty, the tents all dragged down.

The centuries of living so free , so mobile;
The holy land blessing as they pause for while.
The little black tents like wombs of the night
Are all gone to shredders as we sing, Silent Night.

Anthony Hecht

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/161844/more-light-659ec46913f0a?utm_source=Poetry+Foundation&utm_campaign=b8ff92e6bb-POFO%E2%80%93JANUARY_19-2023%3A_MORE_LIGHT%21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ff7136981c-b8ff92e6bb-185545637&mc_cid=b8ff92e6bb&mc_eid=548544474a