JANE'S CHRISTMAS POEM 2011

This is what I was doing yesterday, when I should have been doing the ironing!

TOTALLY NATIVITY

The lights were twinkling on my tree,

As Christmas Eve descended,

I’d made the cake, the Christmas pud,

And praises duly rendered,

A tot of rum for Santa Claus,

And a lovely warm mince pie,

I placed beside the burning fire,

For that hungry passer by,

And then I noticed something wrong,

It was quite a mystery,

A little sheep had disappeared

From the toy Nativity,

Joseph still watched over Mary,

Jesus was there in the hay,

A small group of shepherds gathered

With wise men from far away,

The cattle were lowing softly,

A bright star above them shone,

Every character had its place,

Except the sheep, which was gone,

We can’t have Christmas without her,

I thought, she’s there every year,

The stable has to have a sheep,

Without it, it looks quite bare,

So I started to search the house,

For that little missing sheep,

I rifled through cupboards and drawers,

I upturned things in a heap,

I looked around the skirting board,

Down the sides of the settee,

I emptied the waste-paper bin,

Moved things underneath the tree,

The sheep had spirited away,

And the house was upside down,

I just couldn’t understand it,

The thing was not to be found,

And then Dave came home from the pub,

As happy a man could be,

He looked at the mess. I explained,

‘I can’t find the sheep, you see.’

‘Ah the sheep’, he said quite coyly,

There’s something you need to know,

I took it for a little walk,

For a change of air, Ho! Ho!”

He pulled his hand from his pocket,

Clenched his fist tight, gave a sigh,

Then slowly opened his fingers,

To reveal the sheep inside,

I was so happy to see it,

There was no anger at all,

We both just fell about laughing,

And placed the sheep in the stall

We shook our heads and looked around,

Our home was in disarray,

What mattered most, the lost sheep was

Found, in time for Christmas Day.

©Jane Sharp

2011