Silent Night?
never in Stratford
not with cop cars wailing
sailing through red traffic lights
no flamin' silent nights here.

there's a different kind of quietness
in being homeless,
where words
are frosted on cold lips,
where your tongue
slips into hibernation, where
only the mind screams out
and where even dreams are dumb,

numb to it?
you shouldn't be.

It seems that after you've done your training in the army
they give you a passing-out parade,
no one gives me a parade when I pass out,
seems a tad unfair to me.

We have loved some and lost some
and this year's been a long one
and if you need this
here's a kiss
to remind you that I survived,

buzzin' about like a blue-arsed fly
and doing so only to try not to die
or it might be the pills that the Doc'
is so keen on,
him thinking it's something else
that the old will get hooked on,

I dunno
never will,
She says to me
take a pill
and the year ends
as years tend to do.

Credit cards barcode the body
social media overloads the mind
we've been signed in,
we're being bought out
and brought to our knees
by the government's policies.

But I feel sure that twenty-twenty-five
will be a great time in which to be alive.

We turn back on ourselves
to find ourself,
it's at times a long journey,
but the sights we see
remind you and me
that it's worth it.

All singing and dancing,
but
that's kept for a night in
which happened to be
sometime back in '63.

Did Santa
feed the reindeer, dear?
I asked of her
quite innocently,

She looked at me with
the look that She gives me
and asked me
was that a joke?

No
no
no, it cannot be
but I see that it's true
there's still work to do.
wonders if
should I call in sick?

but you know
and I know
that's not good for the
economy.

What a relaxing time Christmas can be,
said no big family ever.

Was it good for you?
said he,
She never replied.

But it's fun and the sum of all good wishes.

There'll be more