Child's Christmas Eve

A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS EVE A child’s in thought by a cozy fire His dog stretched out at hearthside Big sister and a friend fun-gone On a frosty snowy sleigh ride His kitty Miss Boots Done chasing a mouse Asleep on the sill Not a sound in the house Then in fancy enchanted child hears Pitter pats on the roof A jolly fat laugh Many reindeer hooves The blaze in the fireplace Pops a big log Startles the child And up jumps his dog Blasé kitty Boots Starts licking her paws Could really care less About Santa Claus Well the red clad saint From a mist slow appears Till now stands full grown A stroking his beard This elf’s not imposing No no not at all Here stands a man not 3 feet tall Though perfectly formed unbelievably small Child and dog stand transfixed Eyes open wide in complete surprise Doubting the form is really St. Nick Greatly puzzled because of his size At last child in haze In a wishing fond pause Does stammer a question Two words “Santa Claus?” The vision though smiling seems not to hear But merrily ho-hoing reaches back And in a shower of gold He conjures a sack The brown bag is loaded With all sorts of toys Colorfully wrapped and neatly bowed Dainties for girls sport for the boys The gifts then fly out and under the tree This all in a wink quit magically Then boy and dog in amazement see Old Santa rise up the fiery chimney The blaze in the fireplace Again pops the log Again startles all three Child kitty and dog Christmas morn child early awakes How tangible yestereve’s happening seemed All colored in Christmas’ red gold and green Was Santa Claus real or part of a dream? Dave Austin