Fortnightly Poem 13.B (Karen’s)
Another contribution from my new book, Appetite, one that fits the season I think. You will soon be able to purchase it form this website…I hope you enjoy it, and that you have a wonderful festive season full of families and friendship, summer and surfing…
Removing the Christ… Appetite
1.
Ho Ho Ho food – heavy, hearty, hot –
Golden roast and steaming pud
brandy sauce, crispy pastry
sweet and spicy groggy soggy
crumbly buttery sugary shortbread
cinnamon, cloves, raisins, allspice
Orange and lemon and brandy and wine
brandy crumbly raisin and steaming
orange and claret and ham and turkey
cranberries cinnamon allspice sugar
butter and butter and butter and cream
chook and duck and turkey and goose
Chestnuts and Yule log and boars head
or ham, fruit cake and fruit mince
pastry and ice cream and brandy and cream
bread sauce cranberry sauce brandy sauce
shortbread (meltingly buttery creamy sugary)
candy canes sugar and sugar and sugar
and jolly red food colouring
2.
The wonder of winter
with the swirling of snow
the frosted up windows with icicle art
clutches of carollers swathed in fur
twinkling of candles, pungeant of pine
breath steaming, foot stamping
nose dripping wool fingered
Come in by the fire!
Oh for a friendly fire…
Ours glowers in mountains,
the smoke’s in the air
A strange orange sun blisters the sky
thirty degrees and it’s only six
Water the garden before they wake up
for mangoes and pressies
Are we really going to turn on the oven?
3.
But it’s as steeped in Christ as it is in brandy:
Mince pies were large and square
symbolising the crib
Stollen – all white and rounded
is the swaddled Jesus
Plum pudding had thirteen ingredients –
Christ and the apostles
Stirred from east to west
as was the path of the wise men
exotic spices are their gifts
Xmas cake (full of ‘gifts’)
should only be eaten on 12 th night
when the wise men arrived in Bethlehem
4.
More or less reason to follow tradition
Or not?
Can we really cut the strings of that apron?
and have festive food for atheist aussies:
Prawns and Pavs in a tent on the beach
Cold chook by the river ,sipping a beer
while squealing kids swing over and splash
Still a few nods – plum pudding ice-cream;
The ubiquitous ham; though Pagan not Christian
(used to be boar’s head -- tribute to Freja!)
Mangoes and peaches, apricots and cherries
Why all that dried fruit when it’s fresh off the tree?
So a toast to the holidays, to families and friendship—
beaches and barbeques, bushfire free
a snip of that apron, and one day soon—
Christ Almighty!
an Aussie Republic!