Christmas Tree Sonnet (Starbuck)

It's Christmas Eve Day in Japan, and I got up early to do some of the baking and cooking for tomorrow's dinner, and for tonight's special dinner too. The wind is howling here. And I've borrowed the following poem by George Starbuck from the Poetry Foundation website. Enjoy.

 

 

Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree 

By George Starbuck 1931–1996

O

fury-

bedecked!

O glitter-torn!

Let the wild wind erect

bonbonbonanzas; junipers affect

frostyfreeze turbans; iciclestuff adorn

all cuckolded creation in a madcap crown of horn!

It’s a new day; no scapegrace of a sect

tidying up the ashtrays playing Daughter-in-Law Elect;

bells! bibelots! popsicle cigars! shatter the glassware! a son born

now

now

while ox and ass and infant lie

together as poor creatures will

and tears of her exertion still

cling in the spent girl’s eye

and a great firework in the sky

drifts to the western hill.