i come to you as a prophet
speaking words of woe and warning
words about the quote mark holiday season quote mark
those among you with ears to hear
listen
i am not going to spend this holiday season
making sure i keep in mind the plight
of those less fortunate than myself
i am also not going to resist the evil spirits
of excess and crass commercialism
and boldly create a hand made
human scale sustainable
solstice celebration
i am not going to strike a blow against
the modern disintegration of the family
by bonding with my relatives
over a traditional meal at grandmas house
i will also not be weeping, or even silently contemplating,
at any of the 42,000 retellings of that one story we all heard
about the Prince of Peace sleeping in a straw filled box
angels filling the night with song
while the three mysterious wizards
appear to deliver their obscure gifts
i will not be searching for,
or scrambling to live out,
in any way shape or form
the true meaning of christmas
i am a prophet, hear me,
but not a clear eyed crazy prophet
speaking the truth that all are blind to see
of the deeper and more real,
which everyone is missing
i am a prophet in a foreign land
i have run here in terror
and i urge you all to do the same
flee while there is still time,
hide, before it finds you,
the nightmare machine,
the horrible contraption we made,
now rampaging out of control,
which wants to make things more meaningful.
it is an insatiable beast which promises you
gifts of penance and permission,
which it never delivers
you will never be centered or loving,
or generous or faithful enough
to keep you safe from its demands
that this christmas be something more
than the disaster you had last year
i am certain that i will probably
sing the songs that the angels sang,
with candles lit and the congregation standing
find some way to make suffering less and celebration more,
among those who find little reason to celebrate
gather with loved ones, eat, and laugh, and do a jigsaw puzzle,
while talking about space travel
but i offer none of these to the beast,
i do them surreptitiously, and safely hidden,
avoiding the notice which produces unsurvivable pressure
to do them well enough to last a whole year.
instead, i want to make certain that
next month, there will still be
something left of me,
to do them all again.