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The jingle bells are back,
Ringing jingle-jangle
ding-dong-ding
On the street corners and at the
mall,
Where the giant Damoclean
snowflakes
Hang menacingly from the store
ceilings
Over the heads of the make-up
consultants,
Displaying their perfect faces, Santa
Claus hats,
And belligerent helpfulness.
The colored outdoor lights are
back,
Contending with high-pressure,
sodium streetlamps
To banish night and veil the
pallid twinkle of the stars,
Letting the phosphor-white icicles,
Dripping electrically from the
eaves,
Highlight the unnatural
landscape
Of rotund, glow-from-within
snowmen
And teams of gene-damaged
reindeer.
The entertainments are back—
The last-minute, Oscar-hopeful
blockbusters
Playing beside cheap trifles
luring the momentarily vulnerable;
Pick-up-choir,
stumbling-through-the-notes Messiahs
Competing with earnest Amahls
and Peanuts Specials;
The cute-but-clumsy, tiny
ballerinas tripping through Nutcrackers
Sorely in need of crowd control;
And the latest made-for-TV,
hanky-wrenching, feel-good melodrama.
The emotions are back,
With love-thy-neighbor,
brotherhood-of-man yearnings
Schizophrenically vying with
loathing for the driver ahead,
As we pursue our private quests
For perfect love-showing,
obligation-meeting, or indifference-disguising gifts,
Our anticipating the
giving-terror, receiving-embarrassment,
The disappointing joy, and the
exhilarating letdown assuring us at last
That Christmas is upon us.
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