Richard Burke

She wore a dress with Belgian lace,
And he a morning suit.
Exchanging vows of life-long love,
While gathered friends stood mute.
...

It was "sochelnik, " Christmas Eve,
In the tiny Russian town;
Excited children laughed and squealed:
Grandfather Frost will soon be ‘round.
...

T'was a boastful warrior's roar,
From Ireland's coast to Scotland's shore;
In Antrim you'll ney longer plunder,
Vowed Finn McCool to Benandonner.
...

Its keel was laid in twenty-five,
It launched in twenty-eight;
Among those christening its bow,
Who could have guessed its fate,
...

Pray listen while I share with you,
A case that once betide a Jew,
And teaches all to wary be,
Of answering too hastily,
...

DAY ONE
I'm almost a whole day old now,
I arrived just yesterday,
If there were any 'days before, '
...

'My life is miserable, '
Sighed a daughter to her dad;
'Each problem that gets solved,
Brings another just as bad! '
...

I started with one sister,
Marriages brought two more;
Each one a pure delight,
Both easy to adore.
...

Knees

I think that I shall never see
A joint more complicated than a knee;
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Taws a week before Christmas,
When in front of our house,
There appeared a flat box,
Sent to me and my spouse.
...

It was in Myra, Asia Minor,
That St. Nicolas made his home;
He was the Bishop there,
A thousand miles from Rome.
...

It was Christmas twenty-fifty and Santa sighed in deep dismay,
The climate had changed twice since his first Noel Day.
He'd survived rising temperatures throughout 'Medieval Times, '
And the cold of the 'Little Ice Age' of 18th Century climes.
...

They were the poor and outcasts,
Devoid of kith or kin,
Forced to practice a desperate trade,
The eating of another man's sin.
...

Each culture has a tale to tell,
Of how all came to be;
Of who created Earth and sky,
And air and land and sea;
...

The Ghost of Christmas-Yet-To-Come
Stood by my bed last night,
His face so menacing and glum,
I recoiled at the sight.
...

Joseph Has A Dream
An Angel came to Joseph in his dreams:
Arise, take flight, ‘fore Herod finds the child!
Slaughtered innocents, mothers' anguished screams,
...

Jabez Stone was as unlucky as a man could be;
His corn grew no higher than his boney knee;
His potatoes no bigger than a single snap pea;
And his horse had foundered and barely could see.
...