‘Tis the day
before Christmas
but my heart
hurts much.
‘Tis the day
before Christmas
but I don’t have the heart
to say, “Merry Christmas, everyone!”
‘Tis the day before Christmas
and the news tells of much tragedy:
hundreds of lives lost in Vinta’s fury
(it was landslides and flash floods mostly),
and dozens trapped fatally
in a mall fire in the President’s own city.
‘Tis the day before Christmas
and my hurting heart breaks at the thought
of the heartbreak of the many who have lost
loved ones close to their heart
in the face of nature’s wrath and other calamities
as well as that of other humans’ inhumane meanness
and fiercely intolerant righteousness.
‘Tis the day before Christmas and I remember
there are scholars who aver
that it could not have been
this time of year
(couldn’t have been
in the dead of winter)
when it happened,
this birth in a manger
which we by tradition remember
every twenty-fifth of December.
And on this sad day before Christmas
I’ve suddenly come to realize
that this event Christendom celebrates
is in a way really an event so tragic
as it rejoices in the humble birth in a manger
of a Child Promised to all mankind
who would be killed on the Cross in due time
so Man from sin would be redeemed.
Eric S.B. Libre
24 December 2017
