This poem is 3 stanzas. Each stanza has 17-syllables (5/7/5). This is my first ever attempt at a Reverse format poem. (Read the poem from the top line, down … and then read it from the bottom line, up.)
O Bethlehem, do you know the One you have birthed? Let the earth rejoice; raise her voice in song! For the long-awaited Christ was born of Mary – the very woman the angel blessed. She feeds the King at her breast, as angel choirs sing praise, and a star blazes above you, O little town.
No crown for this babe who is able to save, and will conquer the grave someday
Few know of Sue, the Santa Shrew, and that’s a curious thing in view of all the schmoozing she would do once scooting down each chimney flue.
She’d shoot the breeze with skillful ease in English, Welsh, or Taiwanese, while feasting on her hostess’ cheese. Then right back up the flue she’d squeeze.
‘Round every tree, she’d socialize – she’d dramatize and improvise, and aggrandize, and summarize. Shrew ebullience, epitomized.
As starlit skies turned pinks and golds, Sue’d slip ‘tween Santa’s soft cloak folds and there, she’d dream of each household and all her stories, still untold.
The once-mighty turkey is … slight. There’s not a potato in sight. The gravy’s spread thinner – More snack-like than dinner. The fridge was attacked late last night.