Lance Nathan Conrad

Holiday Hell

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It all begins in November, black Friday rings the bell,
Opening the doors to profit, and the now yearly shopping hell,
Black Friday becomes a special day, for those with sales in their eyes,
And once the doors are open, common decency wears a disguise.
 
 
Just look at the Christmas tree, once put up on Christmas eve,
Now it’s just a monument, to the profits someone received,
Tradition soon is forgotten, it’s become about a dollar bill,
As we pretend we can not notice, caught up in all the frills,
Sure it happened slowly, it occurred over time,
And all of us are guilty, complacency is our crime,
It began many years ago, and it’s tied to our Uncle Sam,
He shouted for the world to hear, what’s in your other hand.
 
 
Uncle Sam grew greedy, put the holidays up for sale,
Dividing it in to profit zones, and can Santa Claus make bail,
The family holiday soon was gone, yet the profit margin grew,
As the media touts the sales, and feigns interest in me and you,
The sad part is now the structure, made holidays a competition,
Somehow we let it happen, and it’s worse with repetition,
Our lives have now become a race, to achieve another’s dream,
The pursuit of record profits, with no middleman in between.
 
 
The season has now evolved to, a race for better gifts,
Instead of being that time of year, when our spirits get a lift,
We’ve turned the holidays into a box, tied up with a big red bow,
While we’re all paying for a picture, that our Uncle Sam will never show,
For many years we looked away, pretended we couldn’t see,
Does that mean it’s now to late, to make it what it used to be,
Technology becomes the carrot, dangled in front of our fears,
As Uncle Sam just sits and smiles, and pretends he never hears.
 
 
The holidays were a time of year, a time of real joy,
Compassion was a real thing, not some corporation’s toy,
Is there a way to return, to the values we held then,
Or are we stuck looking back, seeing it changed but wondering when,
We’ve slowly become accustomed, to being told how and what to feel,
That the plastic faces on tv, for a moment are actually real,
The holidays are that time of year, that wasn’t based on greed,
It’s about giving to others, not sitting and watching them bleed.
 
 
It’s not about how much we have, or what our neighbor doesn’t,
It’s not about what’s on sale, would it really matter if it wasn’t,
Santa Claus or Jesus Christ, it’s not even what you believe,
It’s about giving to another, because it’s better to give than to receive.

November 25th,2016

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