Christmas Present

“I caught the darkness

It was drinking from your cup

I caught the darkness

Drinking from your cup

I said is this contagious?

You said just drink it up”

- Leonard Cohen, Darkness

Christmas, lost
in the blackness of Friday's forest,
disoriented by the storm,
greenbacks, bitcoins, Amazonian
whirlwinds, all

intent on obscuring the Solstice─
                  that shortest of days─
                  pointing to the heavens &

                  that star, nuclear bright, heralding
                  the birth embraced by Wise Men,
                  their ancient stories the apotheosis
                  Matt & Luke's evangels memorialized.

 Christmas lost, eclipsed by
temple moneylenders' incantations;
belief in truth, justice, empathy trumped.

But wait!                                   All is not lost!

                 In the West, horses of color, fleeing golden fires,
                 stampede, trampling untruths & injustice.
                 The seals are broken, a new nuclear star rising.

Revelation!                      Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride!