pax vobiscum

'And there were Shepherds living out in the fields at night'

.........................................................................

Can't read Luke's words without

Seeing the Blue-Peter-style banner

With sparkly, silver, cut- out words

Strung between the Chapel pillars

Thick as an old woman's legs, gartered 

With silver tinsel as far up as Charlie

Mc Goldrick's ladder would allow,

Every year for the Advent season.

'Gloria In Excelsis Deo'

Those flash- mobbed words loudly

Heralded on that freezing Judean hillside

To those not exactly asking for it, not

Expected to care, or be included.

While in our ears as we queued for

The mysteriously transubstantiated 

On pokey-out tongue or trembling hand

An ice-cream-maker Italian tenor sang

'Adeste fideles'

Supplemented by a choir of angelic locals,

Leaving me wondering what language God

Spoke, and did He have anything to say about

The bombs devestating Belfast and Derry.