Christmas apology

Now comes the time of year when Steeles

Are subject to the curse

Of having to either write or read

Strange labored lines of verse.

Forgive me that I do default

To limerick pentameter

(Of the varied rhythms of Robert R

I am not full inheritor).

This year I must take greater pains

Due to one simple fact:

Most of your gifts have not arrived.

I seek, then, to distract.

Ten days ago it was I heard

Announced on GBH:

“Shop with us, for well we have

A mutual need at stake.”

And so I chose with greatest care,

Your hobbies/interests in mind,

The best in public programming —

Out of hundreds I did find.

More online shopping followed;

Until I met my quota:

New camera for the family,

Used hubcap for the Toyota.

And though with each day passing,

There were cartons that arrived—

Hubcap, camera, vitamins —

Of one we stayed deprived.

In bitter disappointment

I surveyed the empty porch,

Wondering how I’d gone so wrong;

Where did I drop the torch?

When all at once I start to hear

The deep and distant laugh

Of one so far and yet so near,

Right up my neuro-path.

Just for one moment I get a glimpse

Of why we have this time.

I force my head above the swamp

And make out through the slime:

It’s not the colored lights we hang,

The caroles or the tarts;

For Christmas is not anywhere

If not first in our hearts.