No Light Thing*

He was a trapper
Taking his pelts to market
In Natchez
When he was waylaid
By bandits
And lay dying
In pools of his crimson
Blood.

His widow eventually
Remarried.
It was from this second
Union
I came.

A man had to die
For me to live.

A frightened soldier
On a frigid Belgium
Night
Shot a young
German soldier
Carrying a
Schmieser.
Had the frightened soldier
Not killed the German
My father told me
He would have been the one
Dying in the snow.

A man had to die
For me to live.

A Savior
Was nailed to a plank
Of rough hewn wood.
He was rudely mocked
And abused
By soldiers
Steeped in the ways
Of grisly death
And scorned by the temple
Elite
Before releasing his spirit
Home to his Father.

A man had to die
For me to live.

My life is the unlikely
Recipient
Of the gift of blood.
What am I to do
With so precious an offering?

The weight of being is ponderous
And the drawing of breath
No light thing.

* To appreciate Christmas you must understand Easter