Poetry list
tidiness at Christmastide
buy eat dance drink
feast forget all cares
make sure there’s
surfeit’s plenty amid
the tinselled frenzy
we wrap Christmas up
in fantasy and fripperies
expecting glitter and
glossy glimpses of an
unreal wonder in our
minds and memories
burnish them decorate
clean order and list
catalogue collect and
send my world’s a mess
yet let’s pretend there is
meaning in the tidiness
if only for a while the
miraculous mess lies
in a family sheltering
in an outhouse around
a mangered birth the
smell the chaos displacement
bewilderment – of wonder –
whilst mighty powers are
busy counting collecting
categorising and tagging
wrapping up the chaos
in a present for the
emperor God lies back
crying in the hay ready
to run for his life which
didn’t end neatly with a
cross
don’t let angels and
shepherds mess up your
Christmas
© Neil Thompson 2024