merry day after christmas

Sorry about not posting yesterday; the families of extended relatives swirled around me in a smorgasbord and was unable to sneak away. So...here is that Christmas miracle a day late, and a dollar short: a poem from my heart to yours.


the birth of christ



listen to me


we lived in the nighttime
and
ate bread stolen from
cafes


we wanted to witness
a miracle


the dumpster behind
a four star
hotel held
the cries of a friend
of
ours and we asked him what
he was sad
for


everyday we
find
forgotten shoes and suits
waiting in
windowless
car carcasses


the winter is coming and we don't
try very hard to find work


someone out in the evening
tonight
on a bus is
making love and someone
is
fighting with their
child


someone is watching us push
shopping carts
into alleyways


and some are even singing
a song
about our
awful faces


I believe that in the morning
the
sun will come and
sit in my pocket


I believe that I am blessed
and
every iron lamppost
is
really lit for
my pleasure


we
waited until the stroke of midnight
and
then we raided the nearest
taxi cab and turned it over


the fire that came was like
a birth
and we warmed our hands


we watched the refleciton of the city
from the river
later
and some of us even jumped in


nobody would come to save
the poor
wretched cat caught in a fence,
but I wept
and I paused


we are the birch in the smashed parking lot
and
we are the stained
glass in the bottom
of the tin fire drum


a child was born
yesterday
without eyes,
screaming


we watched it try
to feed
but the mother
was indifferent


I am certain
of my
death in a twilight
boxcar
traveling very far
to a place
I've never
been


when I arrive,
friends will set my
body to flame
and hardly
anyone will have stories of me


we want for the world
to be a better place,
but
we have no idea
how
to achieve such things


we bang pipes, and
when we
don't have those,
we bang
store windows