The big thaw

We retreated to safety

hurrying home out of the cold

and chaos of snow and ice

We lit fires and snuggled up

making the most of a season of quiet

in busy full lives

Only one who was used to being left out in the cold

remained behind to check on those

with no means of retreat

One who was born in a drafty steading

who knew the resignation and discomfort

of enforced exile

He snuck in under cardboard shelters

shivered around braziers

tucked newspaper covers 

tighter around his friends

He slugged from their bottles 

of warming spirit

listened to the chattering teeth

and hacking coughs

and wept frozen tears

that so little has changed

in 2000 years

And when the thaw came

those tears turned into a river

for a world

that still abandons the vulnerable

and deserts the poor

and prefers glitzy news

to cold reality

And just as his cries went unheeded then

so his tears are met with indifference now.