Personal Gospel.....To Brandon, My Son, Poem by John Tansey

To Brandon, my son,
I now know to whom belongs this tale
of the baby in the barn.
I now take to heart
this parable of the bible as my own.
That to me it belongs
and to everyone
who has been or bore a child
into the open palms of humility.

I have been the son
and now the father,
this compassion I feel
must be the other
pain, that strikes with a capacity for sorrow
in whether or not the world
will be kind to my child tomorrow.

I wonder, who knows this tale is told again
of the child in the manger,
whose sweet smile and saving grace
will not absolve this world
of its anger.