Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Scrooged

How many will hang themselves with tinsel
This caroling cacophonous December?
Not me!  I will not set foot in their malls
To offer my neck to the creditor's noose.
And even if I had paper money
I'd burn it in the fire before buying baubles,
Because I have tried to warm myself
With this Christmas candle
But not being of strong imagination
I have failed.
I am a scrooge, with nothing to give.
My children will go hungry
Without their school lunches.
My mother will reminisce on golden years
When her country and its children were strong.
I only will be blessed
To get to go to work that day
And not to see their want.

The resilience of my family flies
With the reindeer.
He will carve wooden spoons and walking sticks.
She will sew scraps into imaginative uses.
Mother will cook a Christmas dinner
I know not how, but it will be there.
It will be after dark
When I step inside my Christmas snow globe,
But in that theater I find the way to thrive.
So with the vision of this future in my mind,
I'll find a way to provide.


14 comments:


  1. "How many will hang themselves with tinsel"

    Wickedly great first line I've ever read! Seriously!

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    1. I try to shy away from wickedness but it bites me once in awhile. I will take this as a compliment, thank you.

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  2. Yes, a strong first line, it just drew me in, and the rest did not disappoint. I especially liked

    "And even if I had paper money
    I'd burn it in the fire before buying baubles."

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    1. Thanks, Serena. There are just too many baubles in the world.

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  3. I love the ending and how you danced with the doubt and dark mood.
    I love these lines:
    "But in that theater I find the way to thrive.
    So with the vision of this future in my mind,
    I'll find a way to provide."

    Real great lines in this poem :D

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    1. It was a dance I didn't want to do, but now I'm glad I done it.

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  4. Makes me think of the reality we try to not think about while buying all this "stuff"....of those who dont even have the basics of life. Well done, thought-provoking and very well written.

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    1. Your comment reminds me of a YouTube my kids showed me. It was painfully funny. (First World Problems by nigahiga.)

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  5. I loved the ending of this poem.... and the positive vision of the future! Definitely there is way to have Christmas without all the 'baubles' in the world.

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  6. I so agree with this. I stopped falling into the debt trap at Christmas a good 25 years ago. When I realised it was losing its real reason for why we even have the day.
    This was a fun read but, touched with that sharp edge of truth and life's realities.

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    1. Life would get dull without those sharp edges!

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  7. "When I step inside my Christmas snow globe,
    But in that theater I find the way to thrive.
    So with the vision of this future in my mind,
    I'll find a way to provide.

    Love the whole poem but this in particular because once we get the gritty reality a snow globe feels so safe and sound. It may be an illusion like all theatre, but herere your narrator is calm enough to see his/her way!

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    1. I liked writing that transition, too. Thanks, Susan.

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For comments and carrots, thanks.