Wednesday, December 26, 2012

CDXXIX - Come and Gone




Come and Gone

Christmas has come
And Christmas has gone
Just footprints in the snow. (1)
But never fear
It will return again
Just 364 sleeps to go. (6)

Christmas has come
And Christmas has gone
The wrappings fill the bin. (2)
The Christmas tree
Is largely ignored
And the sales can now begin. (7)

Christmas has come
And Christmas has gone
There’s cricket at the ‘G, (3), (4)
The ‘fridge is full 
Of left over stuff
To eat sliced, cold, for tea. (5)

Christmas has come
And Christmas has gone
A rest for Santa and the elves
The marketing machine
Moves to the next big thing:
Hot Cross Buns are on the shelves. (8)

Christmas has come
And Christmas has gone
But have we learnt a thing?
Where is all the peace
And joy, the season’s
Supposed to bring?


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© J Cosmo Newbery 2012
---
(1) OK, granted it doesn’t snow here but all the Christmas cards can’t be wrong.  Can they?
(2) Recycle Bin, of course.   Wouldn’t want to have a larger carbon footprint than necessary.  Would we?
(3) Cricket – a game devised by the English, a largely Godless race, to give them some idea of what an eternity would be like.
(4) The ‘G = The MCG = The Melbourne Cricket Ground.
(5) Tea = dinner, supper, …well, any meal of your choice, really.
(6) OK, 243 sleeps until the carols are in the supermarket.
(7) Excluding the Boxing Day Sales that started before Christmas.
(8) They are in the labs for testing in September.  Fresh?  Don't go there.
...


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32 comments:

  1. Fantastically brilliant, made me laugh, made me guffaw and made me smile, all in one motion. Thats my facial workout for the day taken care of.
    Really enjoyed this, lifted my spirits somewhat.

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  2. I LOve Boxing Day!
    That bloody Christmas musac drives you nuts. They always have versions of things where someone is murdering the song - either hyped up or dragged out. Either way it's painful.
    I think Scrooge put it nicely, 'Bah, humbug'. (I hope it was Scrooge)! The tree will be back in the box today :)
    Hope you had a nice day. We did, but I'm glad it's a year before the next one. I could eat hot-cross buns all year round. They're yummy. I don't buy Easter Eggs but they will be on the shelves soon (big sigh).
    I wish you and your family peace, health and happiness for the New Year and beyond.

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  3. Boxing day is next for us, which is tomorrow ~

    Let the shopping madness begin ~

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  4. Love the poem.
    Love the footnotes!
    But that picture!!
    Very astute observations of Christmas and post-Christmas. The good will part is very short lived.

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  5. hahaha your definition of cricket made me guffaw...christmas comes and goes faster every year....taste great less filling eh? smiles.

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  6. wow, footnotes -- scattered, unorderly footnotes
    Like the Christmases, I guess.
    But they'll be back

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Sabio. I have absolute faith(!) that you can cope with scattered disorderly footnotes. :-)

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    2. They were good fun. It made me laugh at my mind's disgust. Like much of poetry, it lets you see behind the silliness of assumptions of grammar, senses, orthography, reason and more. The question is, where does it take you after that.

      Today is the day after Christmas -- we'll see what is left.

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  7. Excellent picture for the poem..the merchandising aspect is horrible for sure, as I work in retail.

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  8. Wonderful jibes on the day after! Chuckles for your humor Cosmo! What you described are true in many aspects of all festivals! Great write!

    Hank

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  9. made me smile and laugh too...loved the footnotes and inspired to write something with footnotes as well.. and hopefully before the next Christmas carol season is upon us!

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  10. I definitely don't like the commercialism of Christmas, and do think of it as a bit of a chore at times... being Santa for three kids is stressful enough. Yesterday they were taking down the Christmas, putting up New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day stuff!

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  11. Yes, I was in a store yesterday and Valentines Hearts were on display already. It IS a crazy world.

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  12. JC

    these intials alone are perfect for a xmas day post! :)

    i enjoyed everything aspect . . . the notes are perfect
    because they add a layer in a suitable way, expanding the
    experience and in keeping with the general tone which is pitched perfectly . . . the ryhme is smart without being forced and having played cricket i tend to agree regarding its relation to eternity . . . making some cute points in a non-didactic way, you really hit the nail on the head with humour to boot (imho)

    nice work

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  13. i enjoyed every aspect too (i blame the eggnog:)

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  14. brilliant... love the numbered comments!

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  15. So true - if only the Christmas spirit was with us all year round.

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  16. God, you're good at this. That photo made me lol :)))

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  17. Love your poem dear J Cosmo and the footnotes. 364 sleeps to allow us to recover. :)
    xoxoxo ♡

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  18. Great pic...Very you:)

    Hot cross bun story is alarming. You are sort of like those mysterious apothecaries the De Borgias used in medieval times for detecting poisons in their food etc ..

    I get the feeling you have never tried to dig a hole to China, listen to the waves in a cowrie shell,run away from the moon,sent a messagein a bottle, put salt on a bird's tail or place the tip of a cat's ear between your lips.Tsk!

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    Replies
    1. I did work at the Coroner's Court labs before moving to food. I have tried three of your list - "tries hard, can do better" will be on my report card, no doubt.

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    2. Three - that's wonderful!..not the cat's ear,I bet:)Since Semaphore has likened you to T S Eliot I can't write that now.

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    3. Waves, mesaages and the cat's ear.

      I have tied cotton around a blowfly's head but that wasn't on your list. You tie the other end to a small rock and the blowfly bounces around like a - well, fly in a string tied to a rock. All the skinks come out from teh garden to watch.

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  19. The marketing machine
    Moves to the next big thing

    A lot of truth here, and a lot of humor--quintessential Cosmo.

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  20. As with T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land", the notes are almost as interesting as the poem!

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  21. Wonderful poem and equally awesoms notes :-) happy holidays

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  22. I had heard that Easter chocolates are made a very, very long time ahead as well. Urk.

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  23. ...and the years fly by...smiles...we also have Christmas in July now ..we have to keep the humor, albeit cynical at times

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