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Hard-Fought

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1

It’s been Christmas

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Time for anyone

Generally

Though call it Christian

If you like

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The good news

Being

Christmas is

For everyone

Its pagan roots supposed

If not exposed

Its re-interpretation

Now

Undoctrinaire

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We fight to move

City to city

And then back

And while we’re there

Have only

Worldly expectations

The right recipe

The perfect

Gift

Though true believers

Outside packs

In daylight know

There’s no perfection

Please

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Expectation

Slaying those

Inside

‘Til they escape

To ten thousand feet

Or more

With extra oxygen

Again

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2

Quiet believing

Rather

In a country church

Before the altar

Or the table

Utilizing

Oldish forms

For worship

Or maybe

Remembrance alone

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Faith might be small

Its absence we

Bring with us

Where it is dark by

Candlelight

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Dim revelations only

Through

Our liturgies

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But silence

While the world cracks

Outside

We found this hour

To remind ourselves

Within a sect

Of our

Sometimes surprised

Devotion

To the words about

The importance

Of

What’s important

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3

We’ll take with us

Some revelation

With us

For a while

After

‘Til the urban

And suburban worlds

Shall fall on us

Again

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Clarity lost like paradise

A cover

We had not requested

Pushing holy air

Inhaled

Out into the dust

From falling

Failing acquisition

We say

Means

Christmas morning

The hours and

Days after

Rather than faith

For acquisition

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C L Couch

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Photo by Andrew Seaman on Unsplash

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