By Ralph from The Door Magazine Chat Closet-- words in parentheses are supposed to be indented

December Musings

Green and red lights fade
into a panoply of red, white and blue.
The Wal-Mart lot is jammed
(again)

with cars streaming through the artificial
roads in this Discount City where savings
are awarded on the platform backs
of the downtrodden workers, who make a fuck-you
grimace as they bear the cross of nail
polish, two for two, cheap cologne on sale -
(limited supply per store.)

Santa sits despondent
in an eggnog-and-gin coma, wondering
why he has sunk to the depths
of having redneck kids piss on him.
I question my own motives
(a man's heart is evil from his youth)

for coming to this place. Maybe
because I want to mock the lives
lived inside a big box, the surreal
land of scanner beeps and company TV
(like Pravda, only cheerier.)

Or perhaps I want to cry
out with joy and exultation at the prices
of incense and of myrrh
(cash, check, or credit?)

- after Campbell McGrath