Census

haiku for losing control

As the story goes

Augustus and his minions

decreed the counting.

A census gives us

the needed information

to order our world.

Numbering people,

keeping control and power,

imposing taxes.

The count brings the man,

along with his pregnant bride

south to Bethlehem.

But in this baby

God upends all creation;

here is the promise.

Humble mum and dad,

common tradesman and his wife;

folk the same as us.

Find them a stable,

a shelter for giving birth.

How appropriate.

No fancy cradle;

he can sleep in a feed trough,

there among the straw.

Invite some shepherds,

poor and lowly witnesses;

they’ll proclaim his birth.

Something about God

spurning grandeur and power;

these are good stories.

© Ken Rookes 2017.