Christmas Was Canceled in Bethlehem

Christmas was canceled in Bethlehem
Holiness walks amongst the most ordinary of men
Tiny hands reach out from under the rubble
Christ is risen through the Palestinian people

Barefooted, in flip-flops
And rescuing lives
It’s as if you could reach
Through the screen
And touch the divine

Generational olive groves
Set fire on the hillside
To have but an ounce of the faith
As the people of Palestine

From the cliffs of delusion
Democracy dangles
The boy with no face, no legs
Humanity mangled
Though some of the dead
Look like sleeping angels
Live-streamed, genocidal
War crimes of Israel

They killed us under every moon
The Strawberry, The Worm
The Snow, The Sturgeon, and The Wolf
They killed us under every moon
The Strawberry, The Worm
The Full Corn, the Harvest
They killed us under every moon
The Strawberry, The Worm
The Pink, and The Flower

These technologies of death
Are illusory powers

Real power is in
The hands that replant
And the tears that water
The humility and grace
Seen in Palestinian fathers
It’s the bones that enrich soils
After the slaughters
It’s the birthright to life
Of every son and daughter

It’s in those same old skeletons
Dancin’ through traumas
And the hearts burning
Dense like manzanita
It’s the man who changed my life
And the world with his camera
It’s the “soul of my soul”
In the grandfather of Gaza

They killed us under every moon
The Strawberry, The Worm
The Snow, The Sturgeon, and The Wolf
The Strawberry, The Worm
The Full Corn, and the Harvest
They killed us under every moon
The Strawberry, The Worm
The Pink, and The Flower

These technologies of death
Are illusory powers

This year Christmas was canceled in Bethlehem
Holiness walks amongst the most ordinary of men
Tiny hands reach out from under the rubble
Christ is risen through the Palestinian people