Christmas Hangover

An Epiphany Poem

In a bar called “The Stable,” owned by Prophet and King

A shepherd plays piano and lounge-angels sing

You beckoned me over and bought me a beer

Malted tradition, fermented good cheer

 

I have to admit, you didn’t have looks

Your cheeks had the pallor of a face stuck in books

But to woo a man lonely in seasons like this

Just say, “I’ll be with you,” and I hear pure bliss

 

So I sat down beside you and picked up the glass

Of bourbon, a babe who was kept by an ass

The liquor was love, a kind I’d not tasted

How easy, on this stuff, ‘t’would be to get wasted

 

The holiday hooch went down smooth, then a double

I turned from my thought that your looks would pose trouble

And saw with new eyes, filled with joy and adoring

As the lounge-angel sang with glorias soaring

 

I whispered sweet nothings into your ear

And you whispered back, great somethings so dear

Crazy we’d call them fifty-one weeks of the year

But by lenses of drink now so real did appear

 

Then burning with hope your hand had touched mine

And the spirit of spirits made my heart feel divine

Until my mouth leapt with confessions extreme

That you were the one all my dreams to redeem

 

And taking my hand, like a mother or friend

Who knew every nook, my beginning and end,

You drew me to dance ‘twixt the ox and the sheep

And lifted a veil between waking and sleep

 

We danced as if broadcasting joy to the world

Then into the arms of this lover I curled

While silent night settled, and holy night rang

Into your ear your praises I sang

 

Made strong with the liquid of courage and hope

I gazed in your eyes and felt the warm stroke

Of your flesh on my cheek, sensation of bliss

That pulled in my lips, and your mouth to kiss

 

Forgetting the world, discarding the pain

The what-ifs of doubt, the cultured and sane

I whisked you away, while you giggled in glee

Drunk with love, hanging on, my hay-loft to see

 

There in full human love and material touch

I held your divinity, and took of it much

That a lover would take, a roll in the hay

Where a world’s width protects ‘gainst the light of the day

 

With lounge-angels’ songs ringing soft in my head

You came with me, lay with me, there made our bed

With eager and desperate touching our hands

Joined sky with the earth in a great one night stand

 

But then a bright dawn, like a new year turned old

Crept up and stabbed me awake with its gold

Rinsing away the night’s jubilation

Beating my red eyes with day’s pugilation

 

The songs were all gone, reality spake

Back to the grind, time and money to make

A headache of loss pounded down on my brain

Grey after joy, after sunshine the rain

 

All for the best, I thought, better be real

Than dare let a pipe dream take life by appeal

To another swift fancy, another quick love

That lasts but a week, then succumbs to the shove

 

Of work and priorities concrete and stern

Maybe next year—next year I’ll learn

To drink not so much, and inflate all my hopes

And then be left hanging for dead on the ropes

 

When love-liquor fades and lovers declare

“What happens in Christmas—forever stays there”

So preparing for normalcy, the needs of the day

I rolled myself over to rise from the hay

 

And before I could breathe one more breath of the world

An epiphany struck, for there you were curled

In my remnants of clothes, smiling love without fear;

I whispered in shock, “O my God, you’re still here!"

~emrys