A Child Is Born

Alone and weary, their journey at an end
the young couple had nowhere to sleep.
The city overflowed with people everywhere
all converged for the same purpose,
and none were willing to give up a much needed bed.

Jostled by those who paid them no mind,
the couple pressed on through the dark and dusty streets
a man and a donkey, and his pregnant young wife,
turned away at the innkeeper’s door,
wanting nothing more than a place to lay their heads.

Then just when hope seemed to fail them
they were offered a meagre hospitality.
There was an old stable in back of the inn,
a roof over their heads, where they could stay
sheltered from the night’s rain and winds.

Thankfully they prepared themselves beds in the hay,
but sleep evaded them on that night
and by the time the cracks in the stable walls 
let in the first dawning rays of the sun
there lay a new babe in his exhausted mother’s arms.


december 2002
© Janet Reid