poem at Christmas

AMERICAN CHRISTMAS AFTER CHINA 2016

 The lights                                           vile

                                                                evil

                                                                live

        Iurid lights                                  veil

        delights                                       transcend over hills and everywhere

mountains of people

seas of people

season to oblivion

         reason

         incense

         gold

         in sense

        neatly advertised unto them

        a son was born, a son was given

        love                         in

                                      night

                                      so they say

                                                         yes  so smoothly easy yearly

                                                         this carnival of consuming

                                                         the gifts so necessary           so vile  so evil

                                                                                                                veil  a riot/

                                                                                                                live a riot/ lights

                                                                                                                lurid original delights

tradition dis(re)members

as mountains tell

as seas revile

yes so smoothly easy yearly

this promise of salvation

gets swaddled and sung in a comedy of profit

                                                                                                and lost

                                                                                                as mountains consume

                                                                                                as seas reveal in tragedy

                                                                                                the gifts unnecessary

                                                                                                in lurid lights, in consumptive carnivals

                                                                                                where a son was never born

                                                                                                where a son was never given

                                                                                                but truly dis(re)membered.

Jerry W. Ward, Jr.   25 December 2016

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