Christmas rhyme

'Christmas rhyme' by Heather Trickey

Deck the universal mess in brittle tinsel!
’Tis the season for a public pantomime
Two-thousand-and-sixteen reasons to be cheerful – ho! ho!
Scramble into this year’s Christmas rhyme.
It’s the season for unreasonable reverting,
Fix the hinges, put up beds for dad and mam,
Prepare to face the feast of grievance-nursing,
Loving each other as fiercely as we can…         or, no

        not that only        let there also be a time for clumsy leaps, half-grasp
        to half grasp, to remember – O teach us how – one kindness may lead us on to reach
        for another kindness, at full stretch, my fingertips – your fingertips, until we each, fumbling
        the thickening air, find
        that it briefly clears
        quick now                        [one small god appears]

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