It came upon a Midnight clear

It came upon a midnight clear 

  That glorious song of old, 

When angels bent down to the earth, 

And changed machine guns into harps,  

And turned leaden bullets into golden carols 

That drifted across no man’s land. 

And choirs of soldiers joined the angels 

In a cease-fire of exultation, 

While all the bloodied uniformed citizens 

Of heaven above watched as silent knights,

As helmets and caps and whisky and schnapps 

Were passed from frozen side to frightened side.

A robin trilled a winter song of peace;

A soldier kicked a ball into the air,  

And there it stayed, suspended high up in the sky, 

Shining forever in a continent’s memory;  

A star of peace in a bleak midwinter’s century.

Stuart Butler www.radicalstroud.co.uk

Stroud Football Poets