Solidarity
How did that petal brave the storm
To lie upon the snow like blood,
How did that eerie shadow form
A cross from random slats of wood?
How was it that the straw so sweet
Pricked sharp against a new child's skin?
How was it that the hostile street
Was proxy for the festive inn?
Why did the God of love who made
The world subject himself to earth?
And, if he must, a cavalcade
Should have announced his noble birth:
And why should ignominious death
Inflicted in return for grace
Have interposed between his breath
And his farewell to time and space?
Blood is the fuel which prompts the will,
Sluggish or fired as we are flawed,
By which we choose for good and ill
Craving the solace of our Lord;
And God, who made 'his' creatures good
That they might love 'him' true and free
Gave his sweet self in flesh and blood
In human solidarity.