Greetings, Friends!

Peal, Christmas bells! Ring loud and long!
May choral groups rejoice in song!
Though not a few of us are bummed out
Let gloom and doom be hereby drummed out.
As days grow short, and hot, and dry,
And smoke from somewhere dims the sky,
Dear friends, we’re primed to wish you bliss
In even such a time as this,
With greetings fond, and full of cheer,
And hopes for better luck next year,
And years to come—we’re gonna need it!
Major mojo, may God speed it!
To Kamala and Doug and Gwen
And Tim, you gave your ten times ten
Per cent, i.e., you gave your all,
Then did it right and made the call,
Conceded that you hadn’t won—
Please note, opponents, how it’s done.
So—what about those Yankees, yo?
Well, yes, the Dodgers beat ’em, though
The Yanks hung tough and looked askance
At the Dodgers’ silly dance.
Now, where’s our list? It was right here—
Of greet-ees far away and near—
Ah, good. We found it. Let’s proceed
To fête, with this December’s screed,
Swift Noah Lyles, world’s fastest man,
Selena Gomez, Aykroyd (Dan),
Bill Skarsgård, Nascar’s Ryan Blaney,
Sen. Andy Kim, Dana Delany,
Smooth Isata Kanneh-Mason,
Whose keyboard riffs set hearts a-racin’,
Jose Iglesias, of the Mets,
Who is amazing! (Wait, um, let’s
Take just a sec to mist our tree
With flame retardant, ’cause, you see,
That pesky brush fire’s coming close. . . .)
May joy in an enormous dose
Descend on marathoner Ruth
Chepng’etich! In perfect truth
We wish the same sublime upon
Danielle Deadwyler, Stewart (Jon),
Eve Best, Ed Yong, Michelle Obama,
Willie Nelson, Zac Oyama,
Coco Gauff, the tennis player,
Andre Dickens, Atlanta’s mayor,
Ballet’s Chloe Misseldine
(A phenom like we’ve never seen),
Ludacris, and good Jon Stout.
In point of fact, we’re stoked about
The bash that we’ll be throwing soon
For all of them and Paul Muldoon,
Laura Gillen, Josh Shapiro,
Angela Merkel (still our hero),
The New York Times’ Melissa Kirsch,
Steve Aoki, Seymour Hersh,
Yorgos Lanthimos (of course),
Jean Smart and Quannah Chasinghorse,
Stevie Wonder, Trilby Schreiber,
Each and every paid subscriber,
Anunoby, of the Knicks,
Our Jersey Giants, just for kicks,
Zendaya and Dev Patel
(On whose outstandingness we’ll dwell),
All snow-globe skaters on their rinks,
And every Minnesota Lynx.
Now glory be, it’s started raining!
With reservoirs no longer draining,
Let’s pray for snow—we’ll order sleds
For Dr. Fauci and his meds,
T-Pain, James Snyder, Tina Davis,
Emma Stone, Ms. Staples (Mavis),
Ha Jin, Samara Joy, Brad Lander,
Janelle Bynum (the Oregander,
First Black Cong. rep. from that state!),
Breanna Stewart, Winslet (Kate),
Chappell Roan, Josh Stein, Matt Damon,
Stacy Schiff, and Christian Gehman.
Haul out the good ol’ Flexible Flyer,
On which we’ll swoop from places higher,
Downhill posthaste with Walton Goggins
(May we not break both our noggins),
While H. L. Gates, well known as Skip,
Comes with us on our madcap trip;
The snow plumes speeding out behind
Depict our festive frame of mind.
Re ’24: Let’s not forget
We’re all in brave Navalny’s debt.
He showed a soul can still be free
Whatever its surroundings be.
Our lives are not much like his was;
We’re grateful for him most because
He lived, it seemed, so unafraid—
Uncaught, unbroken, undismayed,
Uncrushed by rat-life knavery,
Serene in plain old bravery.
So now, dear friends, last year departs;
Let some relief refresh our hearts.
The season speaks of love’s persistence
’Cross the darkness of existence;
Blest may we walk in love, and thrive—
Sweet hope for all in ’25.