Shepherds

Not for the likes of us

Warm beds, fine clothes, good food.

Dirty and poor

We walk the night watches on thorny ground

With sheep, those dumb creatures

Like as not to wander

Bleating and fooling each other

Still

With a certain affection

We tend the fires

Keep them safe from prowling wolves

and thieves

Night after night, monotonous year after year

Nobody turns an eye

to the likes of us

Yet we too have our talents-

Scouring the nostrils of newly-born lambs until

they heave with the breath of life

Watching the skies

Telling the seasons

Knowing when

the rains will begin and end
and the fresh green shoots will pierce
the thirsty ground
Relating the stories of old

that our fathers told each other

Then, one beauteous night

One dazzling star

So unlike any other

Who would believe

that angels sang around us

And we followed

There, to a lonely stable

To a baby born a king,

Glorious, wonderful,

A story for our children’s children,

Praise Him

because He came

for the likes of us.