A Christmas Carol. Poem by Seamus Hogan

Crows freeze in mid-flight
And hang there
Like fire damaged decorations.

In longboats farmers
Glide out to fodder
Tossing ballast with steel pronged

Oars to a pod of cattle
Bugling steam into the evening.
Along Broderick's hillcrest

A tribe of stooping pine
File east slower than Artic thaw
While daylight leaks

Through a star pricked sky.
Baby Jesus could you know
That between the bar door

And the midnight choir
Someone would urinate a crucifix
In this year's snow?