Worship
The pilgrims watch us as we go about our work in the temple of shine. It is not yet the appointed hour and so they must wait in the greying snow and biting wind and, for now, but look in upon our preparations.
You may think that cruel, that we are warm and they must wait. But that is the way of things.
We must prepare ourselves and our temple so that in their worship they may reach a new zenith. Our god has many faces and many places of worship, and so his temples must be palaces of seduction; we must use all our charms, both subtle and bold, to bring in the congregation and separate them from their prayers.
It being the festive season our priestly robes are red. We must set ourselves apart from the thronging masses, that worshippers may pick us out and we may ease their aching minds.
We find the prayers that suit them, the wishes that will please their loved ones most.
They take their turns at the prayer posts and make their offerings in pretty metals or promises of the same.
Acolytes thank them for their worship and we close with ritualistic speech.
“Would you like a bag with that?”
“Have a nice day.”
John Xero
Family Christmas Haiku
Every single year
we gather around the tree
opening old wounds.
Martin Figura
And What Will Become Of Me?
Hair of tinsel, a nose like Santa
and greying beard to match
arthritic limbs, spindle & spruce
reddened, green & gaudily silver
obsolescent. Of little use
I am Christmas decoration.
Tired, broken and slightly out-of-fashion
temporarily exciting
and secular to boot
Annual. Perennial. Commercially obtainable
a necessary evil
like baubles
A spent fuse, a flickering fairy light
out of my box
for a short festive season
antiquated, perfumed with booze
and synonymous with tedium
I am Christmas decoration.
Yanny Mac
*John Xero is a graduate of the Norwich School of Art and Design creative writing degree. In-between studying he has spent the last ten years selling books; other people's books. One day he hopes to be able to sell you his own. In the meantime he publishes new micro-fiction every sunday at http://xeroverse.blogspot.com
*Martin Figura has two new collections Whistle (Arrowhead) and Boring the Arse off Young People (Nasty Little Press). He is an Apples and Snakes Associate Artist, and will be touring a live version of Whistle in 2011.
*Yanny Mac is a performance artist from Suffolk. A founding member of
the poetry collective Aisle16, he has performed shows at the Edinburgh
Fringe, Glastonbury, Latitude & Port Eliot Literary Festival. In 2005
he took his one-man show Searchin For Me Chav Princess to Edinburgh,
where it received critical acclaim. He is a regular contributor to
disability magazine Mobilise. His collection Suburban Myths & Misses
is released in 2011.