christmas crossed

it went up yesterday
that twenty foot cross,
complete with dangling messiah,
lording it over the palmetto saws 
and disco dressed in K-mart lights. 

her yearly monument to jesus.

cars troll our street from twilight to midnight,
bumper to bumper,
while her messiah watches with tired eyes.

the neighbors protest,
sign petitions, 
make late night threats.

she's ruining the neighborhood!

but the county says no law exists
to prevent an eighty year old lady
from crucifying jesus all over again
in the privacy of her own front yard.

I gather tossed beer cans at dawn.
they bring me a few bucks
for cheap muscatel.

his blood in a jug
my absolution.

Pris Campbell
©2002

Published in MiPo Weekly, December 2002

Also published in The Dead Mule December 2008

Art: from art.com

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