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This package they call Christmas
arrived at my front door
it's not the one I ordered
it's like the one before.
I guess I'd best unwrap it
there'll be no great surprise
instructions for a happy time
no hows, no wheres, no whys.
Inside are all the promises
of a greatest Christmas yet
I cannot find the guarantee
I only find the debt.
This package they call Christmas
contains much food and drink
much more than I can manage
enough to make me think
that if it was much smaller
more packages could be made
and sent to those who have no choice
eternally afraid.
But sadly it won't happen
as we wade through our excess
our Christmas is all packaged
to give us more, not less.
This package they call Christmas
is colourful and bright
to those who close their blinkered eyes
upon this Christmas Night.
This package they call Christmas
is lost amongst the fight
against the famine and the need
upon this Christmas Night.

Pete

I like your thoughtful poem very much, Pete. I have had the lines
"Hallelujah, Noel,
Be it heaven or hell
The Christmas we get we deserve"
running through my head for most of today, but they are only true for the Western world, aren't they?

Hi Pete ~

I'm presuming you wrote this very serious and profound poem. Whether you did, or whether you posted it here because you like, I just want you to know that I like it very much.

Love,
Elizabeth


Linmag ~

Are those lines ones that came together inside your own head, or ones playing repeatedly after you heard them somewhere else?

~ Lizzy

Yes. Good one, Pete!

~Makera

Linda, Elizabeth and Makera
Thankyou for your comments.
Elizabeth.. it is my poem. I started writing it the other week when the annual guilt of Xmas started to descend and the shops were trying to boost their sales and the adverts on the TV were all telling us that we would have our best and most magical Xmas yet.......

Fortunately, we can enjoy our own Xmas's but, for many, there is no Santa.

Pete

p.s Merry Xmas to all

That's what I thought, Pete, but wanted to be sure. Felt you'd have credited it otherwise, if it were. Excellent thoughts and sentiments. Well said. I so agree.

Merry Christmas to you, Pete. Am I waiting on a package ?

Love,
Elizabeth

Elizabeth,

Last week the 'package' travelled all the way to Plymouth for my son's graduation (500 mile round trip!) and then to Birmingham for a conference and it even went to the supermarket with me last night. I have a day in the office on Monday so will be able to walk to the Post Office during my lunch break and thus not have to search for a parking space!!!
I thus declare that it will be in transit early next week
Trust me
Love Pete

O-h-h-h-h, a man after my own heart ~ as already told to you, I so definitely understand ! My well-traveled, family-warmed, highly-educated, well-fed package will arrive in its own due time. Of this, I am certain .

G~d love ya as I do, Pete,
Elizabeth

They're lines from one of the songs on the standard-issue Christmas CD that all the stores over here have been playing since mid November - I think it's by Greg Lake (ex Emerson, Lake & Palmer). This is a link to the words http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Lyrics/xmas/96xmas.html I can't believe you haven't heard it

Hi Linda
Are you in the right thread here??
I'm honoured to think that Greg lake has pinched my words
Pete

Sorry, Pete, I was going back a bit and answering Elizabeth's question about the lines I quoted earlier.
"Hallelujah, Noel,
Be it heaven or hell
The Christmas we get we deserve"
I had been thinking how true they were, but then your poem reminded me that it's only in the affluent world that we have the luxury of at least the illusion that we can have an effect on the course of events. The rest of the world pretty much gets the deal that we prescribe for them.

Hi Linmag ~
Thanks for the link. Great lyric, I haven't heard that one before either. We all have a choice, don't we; so what we perceive is what we get, I guess.

Have a good one,
~Makera