O Antiphons Outside Advent

O Antiphons outside Advent

They stole the sign-

Arbeit Macht Frei

(work sets you free).

Where is the O Antiphon

To chorus through such misery?

A root of Jessie to break soil

And entangle such theft.

Are Wiseman afoot  making

Way to the scene?

Will it show up in someone’s

Basement to shameful to see

Sunlight outside

Its original mooring?

Will it be returned

No questions, to the gate?

Will it show up as a selfie on Facebook?

A rite of passage that needs no reminding.

O come O come Emanuel and ransom captive….

When I wrote the above poem I wondered how I would connect the stolen sign at Auschwitz with Christian preparation music in Advent. I see the sign as remembrance and ask:  How can someone steal it? It has been stolen before. I thought about the root of Jessie coming to the aid of the Jews. Wise men awake and always on the move, not necessarily for the baby Jesus but alive to retrieve the sign over a death camp. And finally: O come O come Emanuel and ransom captives not yet born some dead three quarters of a century.

The selfies Jewish kids take at  death camps bothers me but maybe it makes them feel alive. I see the three kings as avengers first not just worshipers.