Yule log for 12 Days of Christmas

The village sighs in relief the typhoon is gone
and here comes the sun on a Xmas dawn
Santa’s annual global trip has been delayed
mail and presents will be late we are afraid
but look! lots of fallen fruit out on the lawn.

One Xmas morning it was quiet as a mouse
as we brought baby Jesus from house to house
singing Christmas carols we ate bunelos dagu
though twenty years ago I can still smell pagu
yan bulala titityas made by Mrs. Santa Claus.

We walked to the guma yu’us mass at midnight
church decorations with palm fronds a delight
down the chalan kaskao we heard happy noise
maila fan baila dandan with Marpo Valley Boys
Baby Jesus in the manger was a wonderful sight

A happy voice on our old truck radio
says listen for the sleigh bells in the snow
but I think the first thing that I heard
was pounding hoofs of Santa’s reindeer herd
as a Christmas crescendo began to grow.

Of course there were all those silver bells
and all those delicious Xmas cookie smells
what I remember about the absolute most
was the smell of a nearby island pig roast
crispy skin and cheek fat in my brain dwells.

All around the Xmas tree kitty chased a mouse
knocked the tree over and woke the whole house
we put it back up adding a fresh popcorn string
sang songs that Tun Henry boy taught us to sing
and ate hard tack biscutsu baked by Santa’s spouse.

Seems like almost every year we got a Xmas rat
that had a long tail and always looked quite fat
climbing around sniffing goodies mother cooks
sticking a whiskered nose into crannies and nooks
and underneath the chair where Santa always sat.

In upstate NY us brothers planted trees out back
pulling young saplings out of the woods in a sack
they were mostly blue spruce or red and white pine
twelve years later they made Xmas trees quite fine
we cut one then went in for a hot chocolate snack.

Aunt Mary made garlands from small thread spools
we tied them with ribbon and glued on glitter jewels
then around the tree it went with strings of popcorn
in anticipation of some presents on Christmas morn
smells from the kitchen brought out babies drools.

A bearded man from the North Pole Santa Claus
reindeer pulled his sleigh with magic flying paws
bringing presents all around the world he would go
through typhoons tropical storms and ice and snow
while laughing with lots of ho ho hos and gee haws.

A simple red and white peppermint candy cane
sweet memories of it are stuck inside my brain
around and around went those delicious stripes
on my tongue mouth chewing down my pipes
on my sticky fingers it left gooey red stains.

I found a present underneath the Xmas tree
that at the time meant the whole world to me
usually it was much needed warm clothes
of which those I could not turn up my nose
love from Mom that all of us kids could see.