Small Moments

Small Moments

Dear Santa we'd like to know,
was there ever a moment
when you let down your guard
and were just Nikki?

Or felt yourself fall and break
like glass as the moonlight
trapped the white of your hair
in stereotypes of bigotry?

My heart has lost its balance,
but my vision is in full focus.
Do you see Iraq in a slip of the
tongue, in a faux pas when
wrapping gifts?

Between tourists and makeshift
tents under the stars where
moans lull your creatures to sleep
as glacier ice rubs against earth?

Insane war that rages seems to
whisper without love. If we go back
into hiding will you hold our hands
then? Your children feel themselves
falling...

Your boots are so shiny Santa,
have you ever walked along the edge
of a cliff? After the war? We watch with
innocence from the deck of our homes.

The snow falls from a sky so dark blue,
Bellisimo! Bella! Bella! Que maravilla!
Will you bring us peace tonight?
As we cry in the opposite direction,
while Darfur fades from view.