Unsilencing That Night

Oh, how we cheat and rob

This Westernized Christ Child

Of love and family and divine entropy,

As every December

We dust off the nativity

With Mama and Papa ever so alone.

Let’s liberate the Great Liberator

From the burden of a Silent Night.

Let’s recall the aunts and uncles,

The bloodline-turned-birthing team,

Who went about this extraordinary, natural event

As naturally and ordinarily as ever.

The cousins - first, second, once or twice removed,

Old and young and in between -

Would surely have been making a ruckus,

Playing, singing, fighting, laughing,

Waiting their turn to hold the new babe.

The exhausted Mary would not have held

The weight of carrying him all alone.

As she slept and recovered,

Her holy labor done,

The in-laws wouldn’t have minded

Minding the fussy infant.

And as Joseph’s knees finally buckled

In relief and fear at hearing his son’s cry,

Surely the other men in the caravan

Would have congratulated and consoled,

Offering toasts and advice, unsolicited.

What a disservice we do to those three

When we cut down the rest of their family tree.

And don’t we also cheat ourselves

Out of an opportunity to see

Far beyond our limited scope

Of how rowdy a holy family can be.