The night before Christmas 2020 (a spoken word poem)

This year is different. We all feel the tension between it and our holiday celebrations. That’s what this spoken word poem is about:

The night before Christmas
The year: 2020
The year that has robbed us of, well, you know, plenty

There’s not as much to anticipate
With everything so desolate
So how are we to celebrate?
Our Christmas comes a little late
And finds us in an awful state
I guess I might as well just say it:
Can I go to bed now?

I’m done
This year feels like it weighs a tonne
And it’s a thousand things, not one
I started with goals, with 2020 vision
Now I feel like I’ve been in a collision
Every day a new decision
A new requirement to trade
The dreams I had and plans I made
For nothing—
Except to stay alive
Maybe see a few things I’ve worked for survive

Can I go to bed now?
Or just fast-forward to ‘21?
See if some of the damage has been undone?
Never mind, I mean,
it’s not that promising
If hope is held out on a string
Would somebody please move the scissors?
Please?

I’d like to go to bed, actually
Wake up on Christmas
Somehow forget this
But I can’t forget, with Christmas so weird
There’s no reset to turn off the fear
And I find myself here,
And Christmas is near

On the night before Christmas, when Jesus was born
The world was so dark, so terribly torn
And the darkness is still all around me tonight
But on Christmas we saw the arrival of light
The light of the world, the way, truth, and life
The hope that cuts through despair like a knife
The light
That shines in the darkness
And how could I forget this
And ignore his
Sacrifice in my place
Entering our time and space
To die

The death penalty for sin that I had earned
He paid it, rose again, and turned
The tide on death itself
Life has landed
And rebranded
Sinners to Saints
Traitors to daughters
Rebels to sons, with the family name
I’m telling you now, this is not a game:
This is life
This is hope
The light of the world
And it’s free, a present that cannot be sold
Paid in full on a tree in the shape of a cross
And what looked like a loss was a gain
Just don’t toss it aside and remain
In the dark

Come out of the night
Step into the light
The world isn’t right
But our hope is in sight
It’s still Christmas
Even in 2020