Ghosts of Christmas

Have you ever heard of a Christmas ghost who saves

greed?

Ghosts of Christmas

We know the ghosts of Christmas, as familiar as the advent: the grim past, the glorious present, the silent future. But this ghost story is no mere nightmare; it's how

good is saved.

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Such comfort: the known and the familiar. It is a thing we crave, like it is something real and tangible and material and precious.

But it's a ghost.

That we cling to. A blanket that comforts the toddlers we used to be. The toddlers we manifestly are. When we demand the present be known and familiar. Not tomorrow: NOW!

Though a ghost cannot be commanded thus.

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Still we invite them.

To be pasts brim with triumphs. Happiness, wealth, and unions all, charmed by the brittle plaster of remembrance. Sanctity preserved against rot.

Until such smoke writhes in the cool water of reality.

*

Of despair? No. The present is not hopeless. Who says that? No one.

But the feverish make believe of a child, it is not.

Nor is it the terror absent of sugar, too bitter a medicine to swallow. We are, after all, made of tougher grit than dogs' tails, no?

*

As for death, if there is a shadow that lives and breathes, it is the seasoned veteran of life's cessation. Implacable and mortally inescapable, none who oppose it, win.

Still we taunt it.

Though a shadow doesn't care.

*

Oh a good ghost story is good! 

Like doppelgangers of norepinephrine, specters coax panic to reign. But we are immune and invincible. Nothing as familiar as the advent, horrifies we callous and soulless.

As if a Christmas spirit is real and tangible and material and precious.

Long live greed bless us all!

Notes

(i) it goes without saying that ghosts of Christmas is a reference to A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (Charles Dickens);

(ii) while you may be inclined to read various words above, including advent, ghost, etc., as meaning but one of many meanings, this is not any inclination of mine;

(iii) likewise, figurative and idiomatic language above should not incline you to reason but one understanding is especially referenced while all other, representations for example, are indeliberate; 

including literal;

see also (ii);

(iv) although the generation for whom Pollyanna is a contemporary is the generation of a century past, evoking "Pollyannaism" in the glorious present is evoking the feverish make believe of a child to what exactly: live?

of course "Pollyannaism" is a reference to Pollyanna (Eleanor Hodgman Porter);

(v) while the grim past, the glorious present, and the silent future echo A Christmas Carol, this is neither the only intention nor the sole purpose for their inclusion above;

also sugar and dogs' tails as echoes of the nursery rhyme "What All the World Is Made Of" or "What Folks Are Made Of";

see also (ii, iii);

(vi) like a labyrinth, this ghost story is no mere nightmare; 

What are ghosts made of?

What are ghosts made of?

Night and shade and sour lemonade.

Gloves and heels and devils in deals.

That's what ghosts are made of.

M

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Author's Note

This ghost story may not be a romantic fantasy of guts and gore, but the shadows at our heels are no less haunting as our companions for Allhallowtide and Christmastide.

As what was, what is, and what could be.

Ghosts.

Of vows and oaths, dead souls, and what should not be.

For though we are without doubt or conscience without feeling or soul, romantic fantasy is trusted. What else is the past we trust with hearts proud without real memories of really being there but smoke from our own fire-breathing invention? As if confidence pretending not to defy belief is the real past, present, and future.

After all, what haunts we who veni vidi vici is not what is make believe, it is what was, what is, and what will be real.

What is death made of?

What is death made of?

Future spent and every hope rent.

Void sublime sans one more last time.

That's what death is made of.

M