Another Christmas Poem

 

I don't know just how you feel

But I'd like to see the oxen kneel

Or even to hear the reindeer pause

And think "I'll bet it's Santa Claus."

But it's a not uncommon grief

To realize you have no belief

Since 10 when you think "I'll pass"

And are then dragged off to Midnight Mass

And on Christmas day must place a wreath

On a snowy tomb.  You lack belief

That your mother's mother buried there

Is somehow winging through the air

In some celestial paradise.

You pretend to pray and watch the ice

Shining from a pine tree bough.

What is all this anyhow?

You can hear your heart and feel your breath

And everywhere is death, death, death.

Then in the car and to your aunt's

A skinny kid in baggy pants

Reading a book. It's Robin Hood!

And you would be there if you could

In the forest long ago

And Friar Tuck would say "Hey, Joe!

The King is come from long ago!

King Richard from across the sea!"

Who is mortal? It's not me.

And I'd laugh and pick up my longbow

Knowing where I had to go.

The snow would fall all that long night

And we would walk until the light

Can be seen there.  There!  Through the mist!

And all around.  Ah, long the list

Robin, John and good old Will!

And the castle there upon the hill.

And my father drives and my mother smokes.

This is a world of horrible jokes:

You live and then one day you die.

You are mortal.  So am I.

This was, perhaps, in '58

Not too early not too late

All years are always ever same

But, somehow, you always try to name

Who was there because they're gone

My Dad is there.  I see him yawn.

Always tired as you would be

If you sipped a daiquiri

Next to a giant Christmas tree

While my aunt smoking a Pall Mall

Complains the day is somewhat dull

And next day you again once more

Open up your little store

And wait for something and just wait

The year is Nineteen Fifty Eight

And then we leave… and riding back

I remember seeing something black:

A shadow maybe in the woods

Maybe it was Robin Hood's

And above the world the moon!

I'd be leaving!  Maybe soon.

 

The Ballad of Ernie White

 

I had a friend.  His name it was Ernest.

Ernest fell into the mill blasting furnace

Chasing a home run.  Fell over the fence.

I scored from first as Ernest went hence.

Our Field of Dreams was up on a hill

Directly above the Lukens steel mill.

Ernest was earnest.  Man, he went after that ball!

They told his poor Mama he had a bad fall.

Ernest was earnest and, man, he was tense.

Exactly the guy to go over that fence.

We all felt quite proud and wondered how it would feel

To become instantly one with “Lukens’ Finest Plate Steel.”

“Let that be a lesson,” my old Mama said.

I said that it would and went to my bed.

Life ain’t no contest.  Ain’t no frabjulous journey.

Relax. Walk away. Remember poor Ernie.

 

Twilight Zone

 

It was 63 and I was alone.

Just my dog and me.

Watching the Twilight Zone.

Was it 63?

 

Watching Rod Serling

With his knowing grin.

He looked at me

Said "Joe, come in."

 

I turned the TV off

And the room was dark.

And my little dog

Began to bark.

Out in the hall

My shadow I saw.

I knew it was me

And that that would be all.

 

I saw my shadow

Come down the stairs.

I knew at once

I wasn't there.

I knew at once

I was no-where.

 

So I turned the TV on.

Knew I would always be alone.

 

Somewhere no-where

In the Twilight Zone.

Jipijapa Hat

 

The moon coach and foured it with its horrible lashery.

Saul Roth had implored it from Roth's haberdashery.

"Forty years out for business" Fought Death to a draw, so

Into the store walked Ricky Ricardo.

 

"Ricky Ricardo walked in.  Bought a Jipijapa hat."

We didn't believe him.   He was blind as a bat.

"Forty years out for business"

You can bet that, of course, all

The Roths didn't make it from the ghetto at Warsaw.

 

Moon beetles black dreidel indifferent very

Lashes Saul Roth to the Jew's cemetery.

"Ricky Ricardo walked in.   Brought a Jipijapa hat."

Say it.  You're happy.   We didn't know about that.