T'was the night before christmas

Twas the night before christmas
and all through the house
not a creature moved not even a mouse.
No decorations hung no tree illuminated
A father desparate for news of his daughter,
Like a bombs ticking clock waited.
Gone now over a silly thing, a misplaced word.
Five christmas’s since have past
His wife died broken hearted
from a grief that couldn’t last.

Drugged ,dead, or gone
to find his daughter lost,
he searches on and on
No mater what the cost
He knocks and looks in guttered lanes
he peers his eyes through window panes.
His fingers frozen blue and cold
his heart more frozen anxious still
but he will not quench the fire of love
Nor swallow the bitter, give up pill.

He searches everyday
in every crowd her face he scans
wishing for a sacred miricle
or magicians magic weaving wands.
He asked a beggar, he asked a fool
he asked the headmaster of the school.
He showed a picture of her smiling face
to a redlight lady dressed in lace,
she told him of an girl called Angel
with wings of blue upon her back
who had a face like his daughter face
Although its smile it somehow lacked.

She brought him to a seedy place
where painted faces sell their flesh
For Dollar or by the Pound.
If he was lucky ‘tis there,
plying a rough trade she’ll be found.
He climbed up a riggity, shadowy
creaking, winding, stairs
with every step repeating prayers.
A man with tweed and trilby hat
finished buisness scampered down
His wrinkles on his forehead
grew in furrowed frown.

The dark, the smells,
the klennex in the cubicles
He closed the door to the world he new
Slipped the coins into the slot
liked roman soldiers he gambled
For Gods garment with his lot
He bent and peeked the visor opened
it’s hazy aperture he saw through
A mane of black A naked back
and the red and blue tattoo
With angels wings
of a bird
whose voice was choked
and no longer sings
his eyes
began to burn with tears
As time up bell it rings.
Her eyes of blue were
were not fresh, he saw
Glazed stale fish kind
looked red and raw
but he had found her at last
and so he didnt mind
He knocked, as a father knocks
He called her name but she couldnt hear
His face was wet with happiness
From warm loving tear.
He asked for a private time
and the door lady thought
she knew his mind
but he had always understood
that love was real and kind.
So they met in a darked room
with a bed, red light, and a dirty wall
and he put his arms around her
and she answered to his call
and put his coat around her wings
and flew her out the door
they left that day and had a christmas
Like they never had before.
For her lips tasted true fathers love
And he forgot the years they lost
They both never looked behind
and they never counted up the cost.
For true love never gives up
Like a river that runs to the sea of blue
Read this story and rememeber hope
For that father, Mother, girl
Just might be you.