Mary
She pulled her shawl tighter around her
A mother should never have to outlive her child
Be there at the beginning and the end
She thought about her ex
A gentle man, good with his hands
Who never questioned her unexpected pregnancy
There’s nothing more working class, he’d laughed
Than giving birth in a barn
She pulled her shawl tighter around her
And remembered the starlight
The smell of fresh hay
And the warm comfort of the animals
On the day that he was born
Joseph
I’d have made a better job of that manger
He watched over his new-born son
One day, when he’s older
I’ll teach him to saw straight and to nail true
To value form as much as function
And be the master of his craft
But it wasn’t to be
They couldn’t survive the recriminations
Should they have kept him from the temple?
Who put those revolutionary ideas in his head?
He thought about her in the starlight
The smell of fresh hay
And the warm comfort of the animals
On the day that he was born
Steve White & The Protest Family 