The Slaughter of the Innocents

…the first buds of the church killed by the first frost of persecution;
they died not only for Christ, but in his stead. – St. Augustine

When the soldiers came with sharpened swords
obeying orders from a paranoid and murderous king
the holy family fled across the sands to a pagan land.
Mothers screamed into the silent starry night
as their tiny infants bled out and died.
Rachel weeping for her children would not be comforted.

When heavy booted solders come again with rifles and grenades
obeying orders as patriotic soldiers always do,
            when refugees flee across barb-wired borders
            when innocents are crushed beneath the rubble
            when mothers scream into satellite skies
how will they be comforted?

(I wrote this in 2007.)