Advent Eve.

Remembered fears become real once more.
Bare trees stoop,
Bleached skeletons flayed by Arctic wind,
Starving paupers hunched in snow,
Spittle frozen to their beards,
Ice on cracked faces,
Cracked cadaver lips.
Spiders trapped in frosted amber
Crucified on fractured webbs.


Spiders webs on frosted glass,
Thin grey hair
Of homeless women,
Crossing roads they walk to nowhere,
Every door is locked against them,
Threadbare coats flayed into tatters,
Voices cracked
Each word a prayer.


November dying in the embers
Of bonfires built to burn dead leaves,
Torn up roots
And hacksawed branches,
Masked effigies of Fawkes and priests.
Remembered fears are real once more.
Homeless children crowd around me
Begging money,
Begging bread.
I have leased my life to empty promises,
I have nothing more to give.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
November 30th. - December 1st. - 2nd. - 12th. 2017.