11)Stephen Carradini: There's Been a Lot of “They”

There's Been a Lot of “They” This Year

So a low-pitched roar from the humidor
Says someone's life is going up in smoke;
Backroom deals made by the faceless “they.”

The love of life is all too easily surrendered
with one more district gerrymandered.
Who is the "they" that brought this down?

A straw man, raw deal, someone to hate
but there's no one there to incinerate
We invent a they to rage against.

But all is not weeping, there still lies a pause
We yet look past ourselves at He who caused
Christmas, Christ in mass, en masse.
Whatever it is they've got, they don't got this.

I believe in one everyone.
An everyone on this side of the manger,
and one soul inside, looking out at us.
And thus he came, born in a humble way,
One outside this "they," to bring us into his “we.”

And now a birth, that matters because of a life,
is celebrated, carols and presents (some reverence)
to remind ourselves of a coming peace on earth,
that we are all a they together, struggling towards
or away from, but all with a singular point of reference:


“whatever it is they got, they don't got this.”


Stephen Carradini is a writer and musician who currently lives in Alabama.