My personal reflections, a poem

Perhaps my soul is stretched too thin
Or my heart tired of strife
That I sigh first at the mention of Christmas,
I want to run and hide
Yet voices in chorus cry “It is the time to feel joy”
I wonder why not
Every day month or week we shouldn’t speak
Of joy or looking around us more clearly,

I think of that road to Damascus
Littered with debris of war dating back centuries
Or of how the drones now threaten the manger
Or that billionaires bluster and hold the reigns
It feels as if the world is insane..

Yet in the dark, a small spark greater than all
Is the birth of hope and new life
Who would not celebrate the light
After years of the Roman dark?
The child born free and innocent
Is in us all and we must find
that road to Damascus in our minds.

Chris Papps
2024