“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
― Charles Dickens
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happy holidays
not to the man sheltered under the blue umbrella
not to the woman cocooned in her sleeping bag
clutching all their possessions, grasping life by a thread
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happy holidays
to the discounts and red tags
to the extravagant presents
that find a home in the trash bin next year
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happy holidays
not to the human clawing through the rejected remains
not to the hunched soul punched by the money-gobbling streets
not to the cold skins wrapped around lukewarm blood
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happy holidays
to the cold mannequins
dressed in immense warmth
staring down
at the defeated human underneath the shop window
selling confidence
to the us
in horse blinds
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maybe we can’t change the word
in a Christmas miracle
but perhaps
carve a smile
in a broken heart
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where did love go
oh, love, where did you go?
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what is your favorite magical holiday tradition that cherishes love and compassion?
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Christmas has got to be the most bipolar holiday of all: generosity mixed with the utmost greed and callousness.
Also, this is a great poem. I love how it has enough metaphor to be interesting, but not enough to be hard to understand. The structure of the lines and stanzas is also ‘just right,’ as that crazy lady who talks to bears would say.
Thanks so much, I am glad you liked this, and hope you had a good holiday, empty of consuming!
Haha, I assure you that I did plenty of consuming! Not as much as usual, though.
I did consume a lot of food!
Good 🙂
Brilliant…mannequins are dressed better than humans. Love is still here…right? The man with the calendar begging us to consider time and each other’s value. Pretty sure we hear love, but choose self.
Love is her, observing it is not so easy, but yes we need to let go of the self to find the love:-)
I just found this reply and I thought… I know what you mean when you say we have to let go of self—and I know what I mean when I say we choose self instead of love—but I wonder… Is there really a dichotomy between love and self? I’m not sure if that is a true contrast. Possibly our “self” is love. And the choices we make have to do with what we choose to love (including negations) rather than forsaking love. When I say “we choose self” I think I mean we choose to love our self rather than loving others. And when you say “let go of the self”, might you be suggesting that we redirect our love away from self and toward others. I think love is always here. I know..way over-analyzed. 🙂 But like I said. I just saw your reply.
I sometimes find myself avoiding showing love to myself in fear of embarking on narcissism! It’s a complex matter. I guess by “self” I meant the “ego”, of the thoughts and the ideas that are generated by the past. If that makes sense (?)
Precisely how I feel about Christmas. I don’t celebrate any holidays. Values have become distorted by commercialism and almost all original meaning has been lost. I hate Christmas above all else.
Agreed, although I still like Christmas, I don’t buy gifts, I make tiny reminders for my loved ones. Still saddened by the greed that this holiday extorts people with…
That’s a nice thing to do. It means more, too, because it’s personal and has real value.
I love the quote. And very said beautiful poem.
Thank you x