Lama Sabachthani

Laid in a humble bin
of barley, not feed corn,
tonight a Child is born
to save us all from sin.

Herod will hunt for them,
the parents taking flight
cloaked in the dead of night,
the town of Bethlehem

merely a memory.
Egypt must be their home.
But long the reach of Rome,
and soon wrung from a tree

the cry of agony:
“Hast Thou forsaken me?”

—Tim Murphy