The Shortening

The Shortening

We approach the shortest day, longest night
And it is so very dark this fearful year of blight
The turning of the wheel of time, again, again
And once more this marks a time of pain
The weaker sun, the colder days, this time
And fever ridden world grows cold this clime
We have all the glittering toys of the modern age
And for all that, the earth still cries out in rage 

As it has ever been, our generation no exception

And that was our very greatest modern deception
The ancestors fell, victim to scourges, in their day
And the stone cathedrals, sealed and put away
The plagues return, to best our race, once more
And even Pericles could not shut that door
Emperors of the Roman world were divine
And yet plague tarnished all their golden shine 

Black Death, Cholera, Influenza: each in turn

And a fever ridden people still can burn
The long spread of history, of disease and death
And the world struck again, gasping each breath
In our isolate tower, we look on a darkened sky
And beyond our understanding, countless die
The solstice comes, but a sign of turning point
And an omen when the planets now conjoint 

A new star: a coming together of new hope

And heaven's message when we cannot cope
Now in bleak midwinter, seek a candle’s light
And in the darkness, a sign of hope in light