Eight Christmas’ had come and gone since I felt the urge to be amongst the shoppers; to become part of the hustle and bustle. By the time I was through shopping, I was saddened by the obvious, “there was no Merry in Merry Christmas and no Happy in Happy Holidays”…for the common man, but “Merry Materialistic and a Happy Commercialism” greetings was ringing in my ears, like “the Bells of Christmas” had done, once upon a time, long, long ago.
I witnessed
with much sadness and a sense of loss
strangers pushing and shoving,
nasty askance looks as targeting darts
people with stressed faces void of smiles,
laden with packages, cursing the weight
tired, sleepy children screaming and crying
parents looking like chimney stacks ready to explode,
attempting to remind them “Santa is watching you”…
clerks with faces flushed from the endless lines,
their fingers cramped and curled from calculating
Cha-Ching goes the mighty dollar –
yet meager the ones ending up in their pockets
young couples arguing over prices
attempting to “keep up appearances”
assuring their success by all that glitters
people from all walks of life
but not one, from my humble observation
“Merry or Happy”
I paid for my potters clay
wishing I could mold
and mass produce
“The True Spirit of Christmas”
O’Prunty
12/23/14