Christmas 2006: Buffalo, NY

thank you
baby jesus

for shoring up sales
and covering our bottom line.

for emptying our pockets
just as the heat bills arrive.

for distracting the middle class
while war in Iran looms.

for bamboozling the poor
and making doubts and riots sins.

and thank you
baby jesus

for our whiskey-soaked district attorney
screeching fear like a banshee
on the evening news.

for the progressive dynastic
city court judges
reinstating the poor house.

for the inbred helpless mob
in city hall
who otherwise could never find employment.

and thank you
baby jesus

for the shadow of shapes
that dine each night by streetlight
in our dumpsters.

for keeping us numb
to suffering
and hostile
to reality.

for making us exiles
in our own universe.