Uploaded June 2014 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Xmas is pronounced Christmas, please don't say it as it looks.
The poet is better known as Thomas M. Disch and he wrote some great Science Fiction. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_M._Disch
There's a sad, interesting article "Who Killed Thomas M. Disch?" in Strange Horizons: strangehorizons.com/2008/20080922/miller-a.shtml
Z is the Zenith from which we decline,
While Y is your Yelp as you're twisting your spine.
X is for Xmas; the alternative
Is an X-ray that gives you just one year to live.
So three cheers for Santa, and onward to W.
W's Worry, but don't let it trouble you:
W easily might have been Worse.
V, unavoidably, has to be Verse.
U is Uncertainty. T is a Trial
At which every objection is met with denial.
S is a Sentence of "Guilty as Charged."
R is a Russian whose nose is enlarged
By inveterate drinking, while Q is the Quiet
That falls on a neighborhood after a riot.
P is a Pauper with nary a hope
Of lining his pockets or learning to cope.
O is an Organ transplanted in vain,
While N is the Number of 'Enemies Slain':
Three thousand three hundred and seventy-three.
If no one else wants it, could M be for Me?
No, M is reserved for a mad Millionaire,
And L is his Likewise, and goes to his heir.
K is a Kick in the seat of your pants,
And J is the Jury whose gross ignorance
Guaranteed the debacle referred to above.
I's the Inevitability of
Continued inflation and runaway crime,
So draw out your savings and have a good time.
H is your Heart at the moment it breaks,
And G is the Guile it initially takes
To pretend to believe that it someday will heal.
F is the strange Fascination we feel
For whatever's Evil - Yes, Evil is E -
And D is our Dread at the sight of a C,
Which is Corpse, as you've surely foreseen. B is Bone.
A could be anything. A is unknown.
Xmas is pronounced Christmas, please don't say it as it looks.
The poet is better known as Thomas M. Disch and he wrote some great Science Fiction. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_M._Disch
There's a sad, interesting article "Who Killed Thomas M. Disch?" in Strange Horizons: strangehorizons.com/2008/20080922/miller-a.shtml
Z is the Zenith from which we decline,
While Y is your Yelp as you're twisting your spine.
X is for Xmas; the alternative
Is an X-ray that gives you just one year to live.
So three cheers for Santa, and onward to W.
W's Worry, but don't let it trouble you:
W easily might have been Worse.
V, unavoidably, has to be Verse.
U is Uncertainty. T is a Trial
At which every objection is met with denial.
S is a Sentence of "Guilty as Charged."
R is a Russian whose nose is enlarged
By inveterate drinking, while Q is the Quiet
That falls on a neighborhood after a riot.
P is a Pauper with nary a hope
Of lining his pockets or learning to cope.
O is an Organ transplanted in vain,
While N is the Number of 'Enemies Slain':
Three thousand three hundred and seventy-three.
If no one else wants it, could M be for Me?
No, M is reserved for a mad Millionaire,
And L is his Likewise, and goes to his heir.
K is a Kick in the seat of your pants,
And J is the Jury whose gross ignorance
Guaranteed the debacle referred to above.
I's the Inevitability of
Continued inflation and runaway crime,
So draw out your savings and have a good time.
H is your Heart at the moment it breaks,
And G is the Guile it initially takes
To pretend to believe that it someday will heal.
F is the strange Fascination we feel
For whatever's Evil - Yes, Evil is E -
And D is our Dread at the sight of a C,
Which is Corpse, as you've surely foreseen. B is Bone.
A could be anything. A is unknown.
