Colleagues might ask, “was Santa Claus good to you”?

I consider briefly, “you mean thee Santa”?
That sanctimonious, judgemental clown,
produced and promulgated by corporate America
as vehicle for annual mass consumption
of soft drinks, fast food and *****?
The Santa that personifies everything wrong with western society,
brought forth during the annual ‘meaning’
that, thanks to him,
has since been rendered meaningless?
     You mean that Santa?

Spending weekends loitering in malls making promises he has
no intent on keeping – nor the wherewithal to do so
Listening to the gimmie–gimmie, want–want from the youngest of children
with pasted obligatory smile
complicit in a con-game that borderlines *******.

Thankfully the “hustle and bustle” as it was once known
is a scant eight weeks long.
During Boxing Week, the Santa suit’s dry cleaned with bells on.
Through February Santa can go to hell until Halloween,
a week or so before Remembrance Day’s sanctity.

By mid-November the corporate puppet dons the suit once again
Action packers of the annual holiday graffiti,
temporarily dragged from basements,
with hopes that the meaningless meaning might
be remembered this year.

Santa should be thankful for summer
letting kids just be kids,
monsters at bedtime, animals at the supper table
no longer bound by naughty/nice lists

We might shake the meaningless meaning one day
perhaps next year
and not bow to the corporate Santa ensuring
we don’t remember how that feels.