Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CHRISTMAS CITY, by PAUL ELKBEARD


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CHRISTMAS CITY, by                    
First Line: Winter's second snow is falling
Last Line: Sick and wanting.
Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The


Winter's second snow is falling
Thick as early fog,
Covering roofs and snaring towers,
Banking side-street gutters,
Sweeping the wide cold boulevards.
At night spotless blankets settle lovingly,
Till all things seem serene and whitened,
Young couples under glowing street lamps,
A broken car of other years,
Bare trees against empurpled sky.
Downtown people crowd the sidewalks,
Feeling it ripe for an old customed Christmas,
Hurrying and scurrying in their big Christmas,
Silent parks creep by the spotted traffic,
Alleys take a captured mood of phantasy,
Unshapely-white on white down changing vistas
Supremely in a purer form.
Old women peasant-draped move more majestic,
Old men commanding, of an age-wise visage.
Young women are ruddy, fresh and saintly,
Young men raucous in a rural white.
Looming skyscrapers are dripping alabaster,
Exclusive, lonely and aloof.
Look at the red lighted butcher windows,
See the merry life of the toy shop marionette,
The street cars slushing ahead with their loads.
The old town Library, grey and imposing,
Invites a vagrant soul to be cheerlessly rested,
Calling hungry scholars to a mess of shelves.
Yes. This is your Christmas city, Chicago,
Large and full of movement till the midnights,
Small in warmth and comfort to the homeless,
Sick and wanting.





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