A Poem for Tuesday

I have two words for blog-reader friend Sue: Decapitated Reindeer.  If you were a small child in the Alexandria, Minn, area during the 1970s, you might know what I am talking about.  Alexandria has some city decorations that look like decapitated reindeer.  Sue insists it's just me.  If I get a chance to go past the street where these decorations are currently hanging, I will photograph them for you and you can decide.  Until then, you will just have to use your imagination.  I find them frightening.

In cheerier holiday news, here's a poem by the Wind in the Willows guy:

Christmas Carol
Kenneth Grahame

Villagers all, this frosty tide,
Let your doors swing open wide,
Though wind may follow, and snow beside,
Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;
    Joy shall be yours in the morning!

Here we stand in the cold and the sleet,
Blowing fingers and stamping feet,
Come from far away you to greet —
You by the fire and we in the street —
    Bidding you joy in the morning!

For ere one half of the night was gone,
Sudden a star has led us on,
Raining bliss and benison —
Bliss tomorrow and more anon,
    Joy for every morning!

Good man Joseph toiled through the snow —
Saw the star o'er a stable low;
Mary she might not further go —
Welcome thatch, and litter below!
    Joy was hers in the morning!

And then they heard the angels tell,
"Who were the first to cry Nowell?
Animals all, as it befell,
In the stable where they did dwell!
    Joy shall be theirs in the morning!"