Since her loss of power
Since the first birth pains
Since the glory left human bodies naked
Since the birth of gender wars
Brother against brother
Since the suffering of all creation
because of human rebellion
Since the silenced rape of Tamar
Out of the darkest times
When babies were not spared from the sword
The soldier’s boot on people’s necks
Priests as proud wolves
All creation had waited for was a baby
A star shone in the darkness
Shepherds abandoned their sheep
In search of a King Lamb
Happy were the donkeys in the manger
Fearful were the kings of the earth
What was this?
Christmas?
Power rested in Her arms
Once more
The mother of life held the truth in her hands and kissed victory at last
The truth she knew would topple thrones and enthrone the weak
Christmas made kings tremble
They became murderous to protect their power
The young refugee family would cross borders
to preserve salvation for all humanity
with each decision to flee an unwelcoming ruler
What was Christmas?
Peace to the world
while escaping the sword
Salvation
while death chased their heels
God with us
in their vulnerability and loneliness
What is Christmas?
Christmas is God’s most famous love letter to her
It is God’s display of weakness as power
It is God’s helplessness as salvation
What is Christmas?
if it is not God’s finest fight back for her glory
What is Christmas
if it’s not to give her back her paradise
as she sits in ruins?
Siki Dlanga is a woman who loves beauty, craves and needs beauty. The uglier the world becomes, the more Siki is fascinated by the function of beauty in society. She considers the knowledge of Jesus as the ultimate beautifier of the world. Siki has seen how beauty is often denied those who are denied justice and conveniently packaged for the privileged as though it were their human right to own it. She is beginning to contemplate that perhaps beauty is at the heart of any just cause. Post-apartheid South Africa is where she wrestles with the ugliness of gender based violence, racial injustice, inequality and other forms of beauty deficiencies including her own. Siki is an MA Political Communication graduate from American University in Washington DC. You can find her beautiful poetry books “Word of Worth” and “Siki’s Love Collection” on Amazon or Kindle.
