Christmas Eve

BY B I L L B E R K S O N

for Vincent Warren

Behind the black water tower

under the grey
of the sky that feeds it
smoke speeds to where a pigeon
spreads its wings

This is no great feat

Cold pushes out its lust
We walk we drink we cast
our giggling insults

Would you please

leave the $2.50 you owe me
I would rather not talk about it
just now Money bores me I would like
to visit someone who will stay
in bed all day A forest is rising
imperceptibly in my head
not a civilized park

I think it would be nice this “new

moral odor” no it would not mean
“everything marching to its tomb”
The water tower
watches over us Is there someone
you would like to invite no one.
Bill Berkson, "Christmas Eve" from Portrait and Dream: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2009 by Bill

Berkson. Reprinted by permission of Coffee House Press.

Source: Portrait and Dream: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2009)

C O N TA C T U S

N E WS L E T T E R S

PRESS

P R I VA C Y P O L I C Y

POLICIES

TERMS OF USE

P O E T RY M O B I L E A P P

61 West Superior Street,

Chicago, IL 60654

Hours:

Monday-Friday 11am - 4pm

© 2021 Poetry Foundation