Thursday, December 21, 2006

A Shortage of Angels

On Christmas Eve
Mum brought the box
Down from the loft
And happily
We tipped it out on
The rug and set to work
Upon the tree
A mess of tinsel,
Gold and silver,
Robins red and baubles blue
The lights were twinkling
But - no angel for the top
What could we do?

Dad was at once
Sent out to buy an angel.
He was well wrapped
Against the cold
The man in the corner shop
Was very sorry
No angels.
The toy shop, too,
had sold out.
Newsagents,
and Supermarkets
Everybody said the same
This year there's
An angel shortage
We believe Christmas
Is to blame

I woke that night
I thought I'd heard
Soft bells
I went to the window
And stared up at the sky

I caught my breath
As the dazzling stars
Blazed a halo around the Earth
Each star, I thought,
Is like an angel
Celebrating Jesus' birth

The morning came
And great excitement
Opening presents
All for me!
I bought Mum
her special perfume
And Dad a film
about Bruce Lee
But later
when the house was quieter
I went, all alone
With my thoughts,
to see the Christmas tree
And there,
upon it's top-most branch,
looking down at me
Guess what I saw?
That's right -

An angel

12 comments:

Roger Stevens said...

This is a children's poem I wrote last year but that never made it into a book. So I thought I'd bring it down from the attic for this Christmas.

But what news of the cockerals? I hear you cry. Well, you'll be pleased to know that I caught the white one (Marge)two days ago and the brown one (Bob) yesterday. Marg was easy - I've caught her before. But Bob's a much trickier customer. In the end I had to put a stepladder up into the tree where he roosts - and creep up and grab him - which I did at 2 in the morning. You should have heard the noise he made.

Anyway - they are now happily living at an animal sanctuary and will soon, the manager tells us, have a little band of ex-battery hens to follow them adorably around.

Happy Christmas.

{illyria} said...

shortage of angels. i like it. and hey, i've replied to your email. :)

Sue hardy-Dawson said...

Beautiful poem, hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

Bet those cockrells?(Is'nt Marge a girl), didn't know they'd struck lucky-they probably thought you were after an early Christmas lunch.

Anonymous said...

great christmas treat.

merry christmas!

Prmod Bafna said...

Lovely poem! Have a merry christmas!! :)

Wastedpapiers said...

Merry 28th of December! Thanks for the nice Mathew Harvey poetry booklets. I expected to see a mince pie up in that tree - quite a surprise to find an angel up there!

I went to the sales today but didn't find anything. Got Archie a "Make Your Own Comic" set with blank windows to fill in. I didn't see a "Make Your Own Poem" outfit though imagine it would come in handy.

Russell Ragsdale said...

Happy Christmas Roger! Cockeral catching sound quite interesting. I expect we can hope to see a poem or picture about the new family in the works.

{illyria} said...

happy new year's, dear. any angels hovering around lately?

Nicole Braganza said...

Oh what a lovely, magical poem! Christmas is all about children and its about the only time in the year when you can really and truly feel like a child (and behave like one - at least as far as gorging on christmas pudding!!)

Wastedpapiers said...

Watch a "The Haiku Menace" !

http://www.sophieswanson.com/episodes.htm

Prerona said...

lovely! :) happy new year!

Nicole Braganza said...

How about a new poem, Roger??

:) Happy writing!