merry what did you get for me?

remember Christmas
that we buy our loved ones
the most expensive gifts
credit can buy

we go in debt for them
to see them smile
and they for us

our entire way of life
depends upon it

our plastic gifts
given and received
our pride
our will
our triumph
through trying times

for this,
we give until our
pockets are empty
and we owe our souls
to the lenders until
next year
when we have to
beat out the year before

this, our special season
when it hurts to be alone
and without -
when the memories flood
and the suicide rate climbs
from frostbitten drifts
decorated with
Santa and Christ -
our mascots of poverty

O, this joyous time
this most miserable
time
when all the trees die for
our living rooms and dens -
when the casualties of war
with plastic
consumes the masses -

this gracious time filled
with love -
when thinking of your fellow man
consumes the trenches of
economic warfare
and our sadness only matches our
empty accounts -

and we think not of ourselves,
but others in this time of joy -
we give freely to the poverty stricken,
the sick, the homeless, the jobless,
the miserable
the torn ...

what did you get for me?
                                  Pa rum pum pum pum.