Pair of Noids at Xmas

by Steve Huff

Christmas comes creeping to K-Mart (tm) in the rain.
Let me explain
Why I am still afraid of Santa,
Why I find the sight of him insane.
He comes walking through the too-bright store
in full red-white felted glare,
face hidden by shining whiskers
spun from plastic spools of
satiny silver plastic hair.
Santa's back is hunched
below his lowered head.
His black snowboots are tennies
beneath oily plastic tops--
I hear the plaited frowning girl behind the counter
call him Pops--
he stops, seems to reel,
as if the juice just kicked in,
spies the children waiting in unruly lines for him.
He stumbles to his quilt-covered throne
in the red roaring glory of the K-Mart Cafe,
lap spreads to await children who will recline,
whine, squirm and cry
till the blank-faced black kid with the Polaroid
snaps a shot
Kiddies wander off with Daddy having just
paid a dollar for a pede in a costume
to feel a small bum caress his knee.
Wraith Phantom Santa,
Satanic Satyr, how you do disturb me.
Rheumy-eyed roaming the aisles
eerily transfixed by the little ones' toothless smiles.
Remember as you totter
beneath the fluorescent daylong sun
how all the small ones fade when this grand
plastic season has had its run.
When the beard comes off
what new sick sweat will you seek?
Santa I watch you
and I grow weak beneath the season
I leave your bright K-Mart
to seek breathing room in the rain.
I feel unclean in a way I cannot explain.

copyright 2000 by Steve Huff. All rights reserved.

Steve Huff is a member of our Bipolar Disorder community, and originally posted this poem on our Forum.