Bend over for Christmas

Consolation for the destitute

In all those frozen faces
on all those timid tongues
mendacity acidic
has well etched fear.
Their feast of resurrection past
distance fed ascension last
Pious penury their election
Virgin birth by divine injection.

T.P. Wilkinson, Dr. rer. pol. writes, teaches History and English, directs theatre and coaches cricket between the cradles of Heine and Saramago. He is author of Unbecoming American: A War Memoir and also Church Clothes, Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa. Read other articles by T.P..