(Ron Koertge is the official poet laureate of South Pasadena. He offered up the following poem for the Christmas season.)
Touring the Crèches
By Ron Koertge
The Marys were fine, all with those
innocent necks, but Sondra Knott had the eyes,
too, and got my vote. The Presbyterians
used a real baby and Willoughby’s donkey,
even though Sonia Willoughby was a Baptist!
The heavenly hosts were pretty good
but mighty low to the ground and Skipper
Webb, the Unitarian minister’s boy,
played his trombone.
Driving by again just after midnight,
all the Magi were home, their beards laid out
neatly on the chifferobes; Sondra Knott asleep
in her flannel pajamas and socks; the baby
in the wake of Tonka Town. Only Willoughby’s
donkey under a single hanging bulb
like he’d just had an absolutely terrific idea,
one that could change the world.
“In Los Angeles we can drive through Griffith Park
with hundreds of others or line up for Christmas
Tree Lane. I like to remember the more modest
celebrations in small towns all across the Mid-West.”
Ron Koertge can be reached at ronkoepoet@gmail.com
