SCROOGE’S ANSWER

 

But is it true, your season of goodwill?

When it is deemed acceptable

to weigh down frugal men with chains;

for shrill choruses of children

to daily wassail this, my oyster life –

which left alone is growing pearls.

 

Each squirreled penny is an honest one;

I’ve not grown fat on tax evasion.

Your plentiful prisons – they're all paid for!

Why go rattling dread ironmongery?

Sorrows are certain, contagion sure –

claiming otherwise is pure humbuggery.

 

A pox on your dismal invitation

to draw my curtains, walk abroad.

Darkness is cheap; the slipshod herd

wants no crutch to dance and merrymake.

Neglect shrouds every gravestone in the end.

A shrewd heart is its own brazier.

 

 

xii. 2022