Creche Songs

About this time several years ago I suddenly had a poem. It was the voice of the Ass - as in Donkey - in the Christmas Creche. That started a flood of voices coming to me as poems. I have since collected them in a group as "Creche Songs." Here is the one that started them all. More to follow:

The Ass 

Time was, 

I could chew a blade of grass 

And gaze lazily into the distance all day. 

My mouth would sing with juices, 

My back would hum in the sun. 

But I was taught to carry. 

And if I should drift away to gaze again into the distance 

I was always reminded of my burden and my task: 

To carry, and to wear so many cares. 

In time, 

My cares became me 

And I ceased to seek a heaven in the idle act of living. 

I did not ponder this 

Until that time I carried into Bethlehem 

An unborn child 

Who, likewise, 

Gave up his bliss 

For burdens.