Poetry Corner

Wow, this is so beautiful.  Blessed Advent, friends.

O anitphon for our fears

by Marin Tirabassi

O Emmanuel, hailed by clueless Gabriel,

who thinks we can

shake off being afraid,

Come to us in our fear.

We fear the past and the future.

We fear those who are unlike us

in any way,

and we fear family members

who should not hurt us but do.

We fear chemo and COPD,

and any kind of mental illness diagnosis.

We fear heroin.

We fear small spaces and high ones,

food and poverty and bullies,

dirt and death,

dangerous work places, joblessness,

retirement

and being asked to play.

We fear forgetting people,

being forgotten,

not being able to retrieve a name.

We fear labor and delivery

and the impossible responsibility

of being a parent.

We fear naming autism,

claiming a gender identity,

or a recovery or a religious faith,

not to speak of falling in love,

being late,

or enjoying solitude.

We fear for our children,

and for our parents.

We fear terrorism, injustice, war,

and global warming,

guns in the hands of those who are unstable,

and guns in the hands of police,

and we correctly fear angels who invite us

to choose to make a difference.

Come to us in all our fears,

Emmanuel,

so they do not define us. Amen