DEAR SANTA:

from Gigi's gay bar on Detroit's West side.

LAST NIGHT,

THE LESBIANS FOUGHT AS IF IN

A DEATH-MATCH.

LATER,

THE GOD OR GODDESSES,

THE DEISM'S OF ANCIENT GREECE

VISITED MY MESMERIZED SELF

AND I WROTE

THE MOST

TENDER

OF LOVE POEMS.

WHICH WAS HARD

GIVIN ALL THE COMO-

TION.

THE TAKING

OFF OF

SWEATERS. THE

PULLING OF LIPS clean OFF.

THE SCRATHING

(OH, THE SCRATHING).

THEN I THOUGHT OF YOU,

RED AND WONDERFUL

BRINGING GIFTS

AND BOLD TALK OF

MAGIC AND

TOY COP CARS. AND

ALL AGAIN

IN THE BLOOD

STAINED SNOW,

WAS

BEAUTIFUL.

Reviews

[Terpsichore]

This'll have Santa tugging at his beard.

You fill the stocking every time.

T

[h d e rushin]

just as you have forever filled mine Terpsichore......thank you so much and happy new year to you.....dana

[M. Shepherd]

I read this out loud to my family on Christmas eve to much delighted cackling and eventually big dumb bemused smiles that you could take the gore of that scene (and what horrid, wrenching emotions must have been flung about at the time) and transform it into a somehow progressive, patriotic, cheerful statement about beauty and love and christmas. I think it perfectly offsets all the maudlin christmas music we're forced to listen to and all the sappy crap that starts to get churned out by the sticky gallon around this time of year. And blood stained snow is mesmerizingly beautiful.. blood is beautiful. It's kind of too bad it's inside us and not somewhere more visible. Anyway. Nuff o that marcie.

[h d e rushin]

I had to chuckle at the thought of those faces...lol. Thank you Marcie for stopping by to see me...

ps: I don't know if you've noticed, but your the new ROCK star around here......happy new year my friend....dana

[M. Shepherd]

Anydangtime Dana, you know I adore every word you write - and gahh shucks - I'm just so happy to have so many talented, ALIVE poets to look up to. You, wk, ed, jacob, serah, beccy - and more - it's been incredible to feel as though I belong in a community lIke this. Now who's getting all sentimental. I guess it's contagious. Ha:)
Happy new year to you too :)

[Beccy]

You watch the look in a child's eyes as they tear at the wrapping paper; so joyous in their innocence, so entranced, that nothing of the real world can hope to intrude.

Then we grow up, face that 'real' world and years later, birth a poem like this; which absolutely re-affirms that beneath all the accumulated layers of grime, the wonder is still there.

Always, you captivate.

Beccy.

[h d e rushin]

thank you Beccy for those kind remarks my friend....and happy new year to you....dana

[cloud]

The stark realism and apparent void found in holiness or understanding can only be amended through a replacement: THE DEISM'S OF ANCIENT GREECE. What a reward for the reader of this poem. We are treated to the skill of your imagination and assurance that even in cold vociferous events, beauty lurks in the corner amid the anarchy, ready to write down something beautiful, which you have.

[h d e rushin]

thank you dear friend and happy holidays to you and yours....I have run the entire gamut of styles in 2015 and still haven't found my own voice...I'm working my a*s off though...dana

[Emily B]

There will be a christmas poem I feel it rising. It will be glorious. Phoenix rising out of scattered ashes.

[h d e rushin]

thank you my love......dana

[Emily B]

this week I had two small successes. I may keep my night job a while longer

[W.k.kortas]

I think the wise Jacob has hit the nail squarely with the take on the all-caps, the child cf. the childish. Ditto what CD has said about the wild imagery and the duality. What strikes me as well is the final six lines, the beauty of the bloodied snow, a seemingly odd place for the uplifting. Perhaps hope and beauty is always there to find if we choose to do so.

[h d e rushin]

great perspective wk....thanks my friend and happy holidays....

[CD Campbell]

Oh dana. The imagery is fantastic. Two lesbians in a death match bleeding in the snow. An ancient battle on the isle of Lesbos, unbeknownst to our great hero "Santa Claus" who spends his days preparing cheer for all the good boys and girls of the world. (Surely there are children on the Greek isle?) I love the duality. CD

[h d e rushin]

thank you CD for those kind comments. I have some great hero's around here....and you're one of those hero's.....dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

this is so innovative...the approach of using the Letter----and i usually don't like all caps, but it works here...it is like a child writing a letter to santa would be...and yet here it is an adult, but one with teenage fantasies...

and i like how you brought in the toy cop cars...almost as if all this is make believe, even if it IS real...

that stained snow represents a growing up...a reality...of how life really is...and all, good or bad, is beautiful because it is life as it is.

[h d e rushin]

good and bad is how this life is really is....great perspective Jacob...thanks my friend...dana