Christmas eve caught me short,
late in the week. Sales
clanged, rung and beeped
through the joyous
season even as
Inventories &
Resources shrank, ebbed,
Exhausted. My
dance card was full, & you
all left me
panting
the radio and TV couldn't stop
ranting
accepting the Onus &
singing the praise
spending that bonus
on Programmer's raise
Time ticking per order, persistent & frantic &
pitiless amid
the din of merriment, ideating
the promise of Messianic salvation out of a
distant Infant’s wail
under icy stars
at once ancient & per-
petual, spiral-
ing warm against history, winter Solstice, & hate ala mode.
'Twas the season of giving, & by the time I got
paid, even Denny's
was closed.
December,2005