IF BOXING DAY BEATS YOU UP by David Erdos - Poem 22 from THE PEOPLES PRISON

 Poem 22 from THE PEOPLES PRISON

IF BOXING DAY BEATS YOU UP, or, THEY PUT THE NO IN NOEL

 

 

 

How was it for you? They once asked, when talking

About sex, or wartime. Today, it is Christmas that serves

The question I pose to your air. My neighbours made

My Xmas plate, for which I was incredibly grateful,

But what have the current times fed us through

 

Swallowing the germ beside care? It seems

To have been everywhere recently, like a snake

Coiled within Yorkshire Pudding. Across British

Landscape, the enveloping trail shadows all.

As your visiting numbers scaled down, and you ate

 

With your core close beside you, do you think

Adam’s first bite of the apple bred a flavour

That stained God’s recall? Someone I have loved

For so long fights for life and Covid has complicated

Her struggle. Another’s fragile heart in a ward

 

Saw pain worsen as she couldn’t see her kids

For two weeks. So, did your Christmas Pudding

Sixpence feel slashed, and have we all become

Tenapenny? Spare change dropped by spendthrifts

Who store the lifesaving funds we all seek.

 

But I hope your presents all shone. Its presence

I seek – different spelling – both yours when I see you

And hers, who I won’t. And so the separation goes on

Towards an uncertain time we send prayers to.

As if wishes were weapons and loneliness could be

 

Taken off, like a coat. This year they put the no

In Noel, but the yes of yesterday shimmers.

It lit my thoughts as night took me, but also

Ensured I’ve not slept. I suppose I was clawing

The air for those I’m not close to. But only in flesh.

 

Here in spirit, it is for the gift of the ghost

That I’ve wept. And so, we offer our tiny hymns

To all hers; those of us lost within our own lounges,

Searching for home while still in it, because our

Idea of home isn’t this. It is in a former pride

 

And a past that contained a different coming

Together and where celebration of the Christ

Who came, or is still to come spurns fate’s kiss.

That deathly peck we’ve now shared, as further

Sacrifice happens. May the indulgence of old

Breed insurgence and may your spreading table

Stand filled. The borders will close every day.

Next year who will permit Santa’s visa? And what

Will he bring? Fresh invasion? Maybe we’ll have to

Turn that table up, as a shield. If Boxing day beats

 

You up, then even on the ropes I think of you.

Through the blood and the barter and the fracture

Of light, a last trick. As I see this woman. My mum.

And my Dad as well. Friends as visions. Warmth

In the darkness that turns depression’s blue

 

To hope’s lick. As with a blanket, that touch

Will warm a current cold despite sunshine.

If you are ill sink beneath it but know you’ll surface

Soon as fate twists, around the measured rhymes

I connect and which you will also find with each other.

 

Would that these words could cure sickness

And that each written page healed once read.

It can’t of course, but we try as recovery

Becomes struggle. And we honour all loved ones,

And mourn for those we cannot see, and the dead.

 

But the dead are in our corner. They know.

They become our coach. Feel the flannel.

They wipe the tears and wounds wasted

And allow us all to go on. And so the bell rings

Once more. I stumble to my feet, fight my shadow

 

And I think of you and next Christmas

And of what and where we’ll be.

 

Sing that song.  

 

 

 

 

 

 David Erdos, December 26th 2020

 

For more poems from David Erdos visit The Corona Diaries collection 

David Erdos is an actor, writer, director with over 300 professional credits. He is a published poet, playwright, essayist and illustrator. He has lectured on all disciplines in theatre and film for leading performing arts colleges, schools and universities around the world. His books include EASY VERSES FOR DIFFICULT TIMES, THE SCAR ON THE CLOUD, OIL ON SILVER, NEWS FROM MARS, CHANGING PLACES WITH LIGHT (penniless press) and BYZANTIUM with the photographer Max Reeves. He is a contributing editor for The International Times and maker of documentaries all over the world. David’s work has been acclaimed by many leading figures including Harold Pinter, Heathcote Williams, Alan Moore, Andrew Kotting, Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair in whose recent book THE LAST LONDON, David features. He can be reached at David.erdos@sky.com.

David Erdos

©    David Erdos has asserted his moral rights as author of his work and has full copyright.