Fears within a dysfunctional family at Xmas

 
The postman won't come today
nothing is ready but everything feels  
bright yellow
Mama has stocked up with fruit in tins
and in case the Chinese attack
she will respond with mandarin orange segments
or a large fruit cocktail if nuked on Sunday
but only one cherry each
 
Toes curled round a bar of Palmolive
to ward off cramps  
Pater screams at paedophiles in his sleep
and something cryptic
about the wrong branch of the family
and a pile of beans

My ghost sister calculates fortunes
she must win at roulette
and agrees to double up on zero
if her husband
can make good his escape
 
I scribble secretly
carving on the stone rim of the fruit bowl
a frozen mantis to await emergent worms
I note that dust is always relentless
in a future when death by remote control
will launch online
heralding the end of illegal Swiss holidays  
Click here -- all cards accepted
except from the already deceased
 
Outside in the snow
skinny turkeys with one eye
on next December
puff up saggy pink balloons of relief
while I still bemoan
there seems no darker evil in this world
than the most terrible consequences
for overdosing on genetically modified
Brussels sprouts