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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 makeup
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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