An Empty Red Pillar Box

I love saying 'Merry Christmas' or I did as a kid expecting a gift, but always along comes disappointment the Pound-Store bow and arrow snapped having no backbone or marrow, no- strength to last even a single day. It exemplified family tensions in just the same-colourful way. I remember gifts that came with no- permission to touch - too expensive to play with - then return to the shop or the local thief, the man in the pub, who'd knocked them off, so poor parents like mine could save a bob. I remember those ritual visits to my parent's folks that foot-tapping itch to-leave-just as soon as we would enter. I remember saying 'Merry Christmas' and believing that others like me also really meant it. But always along comes disappointment like a large-cardboard-box and inside you realise there's just another box of frogs, and the future is just an empty, Christmas Eve red pillar box.