Frugality
why not empty
the already half-emptied purse
further still? – one could, of course,
conduct frugality tests with
selected guests to fathom who is
likely to survive and who might go under
so, for Santa Clause
a cup of water and a mince pie
sprinkled with sugar-snow
for John Cowper Powys
a cup of tea, two raw eggs
and a slice of bread (butter thinly spread)
for Judas Iscariot a splash of wine
laced with blood, a crumb of bread
and a purse emptied on the floor –
hopeful of being fed helpful hints about
how to be penny-pinching but not
penny-wise, the host receives instead
multi-grains of generosity; seeds of
a sound philosophy, and a grown-up reason
for accepting responsibility for one’s actions.
Greeting
After we have searched the heavens
and, at last, discovered them – we have,
after all, been conditioned to accept that
it is in our nature to hunt them down –
will we be fit enough to meet them, or
will we know in our hearts they might
consider that we’re too wanting (it could
be they’ve been watching us and judge
we’re not worth bothering with – so immature
and unkind). And who will be the advocate
we choose to send to greet them. Must there
be a battle between the followers of John Lennon
and those of the self-styled leader of the free world.
Will there be a referendum: On the one hand who
will be prepared to approach them open-handed
and, on the other, who will believe we must send
them tough messages in the shape of missiles,
blow them apart to prevent them penetrating
our security apparatus. Will we be persuaded we
must destroy them (just in case they find us out,
discover our squalor, inequality and injustice –
our shame, the ghastly mess we made of things)
or might we dare imagine that they live their
perfect lives in peace, and they will come
to show us how to put things right, or will we
believe that they can be only dreaming.