THANK-YOU LETTER (CHRISTMAS POEM)

THANK YOU

Thank you for the flat-pack Build-Your-Own-Garden-Gnome set.
Thank you for the lifesize model of King Charles The First made out of matchsticks.
Thank you for the 1934 edition of The History Of Pigeons In Wales.
Thank you for the rubber inflatable pet dog with legs that really walk.
Thank you for the sealed bucket of pure Devon rain.
Thank you for the nightmare in which
snipers shoot who they feel like shooting.

Bless the bread and wine.

Thank you for the nightmare in which
soldiers beat up a child because he’s there,
beat up a man with Downs Syndrome because he’s there,
beat up a woman carrying a baby because she’s there.

Bless the Christmas Number One.

Thank you for the nightmare in which
they deny using white phosphorus,
deny they shot a man emptying a bin,
deny they shot a man mending a carpet,
deny they bulldozed a tent filled
with the chronically sick,
deny mass graves.

Bless the turkey and all its trimmings.

Bless the Boxing Day breakfast
of buttered toast, eggs, bacon and beans.

Bless the football match we’re going to later.

Bless both teams.

Bless the abyss of the human mind.

Thank you for the necklace made from genuine chunks of the Berlin Wall.
Thank you for the authenticated-pickled-reindeer-dung herbal remedy bath salts.
Thank you for the chocolate octopus called Ronald complete with cage and cast-iron perch.
Thank you for the walking stick with rat’s head handle that once belonged to Mussolini…