Sonnet Sunday 26: The Package Deal

Wow, Sonnet Sunday 26! Hard to believe I’ve been posting these for half a year.

I found today’s sonnet in an old prayer journal. Or more specifically, I found it by clicking around randomly in the set of poems I already have typed up, and decided to use this one because it’s sort of Christmasy and seasonal. Even though I wrote it in August. I don’t know either.

As a side note, the line “Jesus is an ornament of gauze” was originally “Jesus is a peanut wrapped in gauze.” Way back when my brother was young, he made an ornament in Sunday School. This ornament was half a walnut shell, with an in-shell peanut glued into it, a small piece of felt glued over it, two googly eyes, and a marker mouth. This ornament represented Baby Jesus in a Manger. If my parents don’t still have the original, it’s because my brother reclaimed it for his own tree. I tried googling images of similar ones, but Etsy makes them all look cute, and not like the decrepit, kindergarten-style ornament it actually is.

The Package Deal

Originally written August 10, 2004

The popularity of Christian lore
Has led to its distortion and demise.
Preferring myths, society abhors
The earnest whisperings of the more wise.
It’s God: The Movie! Starring: Santa Claus.
We keep our angels on our Christmas trees
And Jesus is an ornament of gauze,
And prayers are cookies left out to appease
The holy wrath of God. Or—better still–
God’s packaged in collectible card games
And used as summon monsters made to kill—
Or humanized for TV—flawed and tame.
We have forgotten how to bow and kneel—
We’ve transformed God into a package deal.