these thousand dollar Christmases are embarrassing
panning over the spread of gifts under the tree
haunted by hungry faces a world away on the television
while we carve up another turkey
and toast ourselves for the good years still to come

twelve months of shopping compressed into one
suffocation in shopping malls of grim faced strangers
who’d just as soon steamroll over their fellow man
than let him pass
hours of wrapping in minutes
reduced to a mountain of paper waste

who wants to be a Grinch?
yet “Merry Christmas” sounds so stale
each year a little harder
to find true happiness in those words
before we know it
another’s come and gone

was that really Christmas we just celebrated?
could have fooled me

© 1989

590 hits as of December 2023

11/23/2016

Posted on 11/24/2016
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti