Father Christmas
Your presents year to year
From paradise somewhere
Were express guarantees against the shadow.
And Now? Oh now, no.
"Facts, Watson, facts.
He died you know."
Gullable poor demented you
Bright lights dimmed you
The gifts were unreal, for the show.
Joy died years and yonks ago
And returned to clouds.
The face you saw the lines you read
Was masks and morbid masquerades
The way men see a faded star-after-dying
The way men greet the killer in ten who's lying
The way men hear the fortune hunters' "marry me I love you"
He was like the spy who "talked like one of us" while spying.
There spoke echo and deadly show
A creeping miming thing
Mirroring old ways and Elysium
Or maybe something worse.
"Leaving a diminished child."
Now?
Suffer, suffer, suffer
But love the utter act
Echo, mirror, moonshine
Reflect the true and real
However the herald cruel,
Clownish, smirking, cracked
The vision remains my own
And draws still and will
Recall me dying
And then will I see
Again you the present,
Again you and yes yes I mean
A silly-billy evergreen
Christmas tree.