Gifts you find in my Christmas Fair
Include an Absence of Fear
Absence of craving Fame or Fortune Cookies
Absence of the Suffering both engender
So Absence too of Anger
I name this place of equanimity ‘Fair’
When you choose to open your Gift
Let there be a lamp of clarity
Separating false from real affection
Illuminating for each individual
The miracle you are
‘Everything Must Go’ –
All our frolics now are seen
Mistakenly for centuries
Exorbitant worship of Saturn
Extended all year round –
When only in limited season
Could such ritual appeal –
Where Greed is ‘good’
Where Impudent Misrule
Involves we wear half-masks
Playing ‘Simon Says do this/do that’
Jocular gifts once given between friends
Become impressive bribes to those
Who offer reciprocities of business
Set this Saturnalia aside –
Gluttony and Bling and Bing
Crosby on White Christmas champagne binges
Charging as white rhinos party to party –
This season I give ‘Nothing’ as a gift
Remembering in essence we must ‘pass’
And in our passing leave perhaps no trace
But history’s ‘Chinese Whispers’ for a toy
Once upon a time in Rome
I looked askance at Christians
Hammering one empty tomb into a Mystery-Cult
Now I see some merit in their bold mythology –
I welcome new-born babies to The Senate
In whose eyes still earth and heaven meet
Inviting facile Senators the while
Shut their ‘traps’ in silence at this season –
And let the future speak
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
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