Advent to Candlemas (Vol. 4)

How?

How can we hear his wakening cry
Yet still not hear him in each child?
The victim smeared with the fault,
The outcast vilified as wild.

How can we watch the shepherds kneel
Yet patronise the humble deed?
The poor blamed for their poverty,
The rich admired for their greed.

How can we track the wise men's star
Yet chase each glittering fantasy?
The calm rejected for the shrill
And wisdom for celebrity.

And yet we will do all these things,
Bowing before pride's tinsel throne;
Yet he who lies before us now
Has come to claim us for his own.