The roar of the fire
neighbours knock at the door,
the smell of plum duff in the steamer
this is what Christmas was like before,

before?

yes
in the olden days
when you broke a tooth on the silver sixpence
but it didn't spoil your appetite
when you waited up half the night to see
Santa but then you fell asleep
when you have nuts and an orange in your stocking
and a florin for you to keep.

and now
Santa's on a skateboard
the fire has roared its last,
everything's run on a shoestring
( oh wait, that was those Christmas's past )

nothing's the same if it ever was
except for the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz
and he was a bit ' how's your father'

More turkey
Tofurky?
it's eerie,

I hum and haw
until my brain is sore
then remember that there's
*** in the pantry.

I dreamt of Anne bowling
I think it was supposed to be
Anne Boleyn,
but autocorrect poked its nose in
and that was that.

Well,
that's that then,
what's what when?
Zen,
the acceptance of it.

I've done that.
and now I go
to mow the meadow,

yeah,
you think you know what I mean,
I don't even know that.

Saturday
went South
or thataway
as the crow flies.

I rise only to sink
I
think that's what drives me to drink
that's not the same as drink driving
even if it sounds like it.

There's always tomorrow they tell me
I can almost see it on the periphery
I'd rather it was another Friday
but in the end that'll go thataway too.

Why and
what the hell are you worrying about today, tomorrow you'll forget and any worries that you had will be far away
( at least from your short-term memory )

it means nothing to me
my memory is shot.

Facebook spits out daily things I'd forgot and then I remember them until I forget them again and when I've forgotten them again it's back to the plain old sailing, everything's failing or falling apart but I can't remember what,

Facebook should have a spot weld for memories.

I can pretend that they're mountains the mist's hanging over or make believe that they could be the white cliffs of Dover but I know that it's Stratford that I'm looking over on a miserably cold Winter's day.

it's not all doom and gloom
the bedroom is lit
with an 80-watt lightbulb

I could stay in bed for a bit
longer,
but
not wanting to fritter away all of the day
I rise to the challenge and break my fast.

No thanks to that lot but I survived today
and now I've got a wealth of a weekend to
spend.

yeah
I know
this morning it was boo-hoo
what am I going to do
but whatever I did
did the trick and it worked
like magic.