6.9 Chicago Xmas & January 2

by Eric Chaet

South Side, 1957 or 58, I suppose, Xmas time
plastic Santas given away with purchase
of washing machines or refrigerators
(I played in one of the big cardboard boxes one summer)
Polk Brothers had a crowded store on 63rd street
that was before malls
they advertised the Robin Hood show
I watched on TV Sunday mornings
Robin was righteous, cunning, & skillful
& it was the sheriff of Nottingham
who was betraying the people
approximately like in Chicago
Mayor Daley’s appointees
cops, transit workers, street repair crews
guys you had to pay to enter or leave the world
take bets on horse races, sell liquor, pimp whores, etc.
& who came around at election time to say who to vote for
swaggering grown-up versions of the bullies at school
no one was even mentioning it
it was making me desperate but I had no idea what to do
so I left home &, trying to come up with a destination
walked back & forth about a mile
from California Boulevard to Kedzie Avenue
on 64th, 65th, & 66th Streets
& about half a mile back & forth
between 63rd & Marquette Boulevard
on Sacramento, Richmond, Francisco, Whipple,
Albany, Mozart, Troy—cold early evening
little houses, little lawns, plastic Santas
on porches, & red & green Xmas lights
cars parked along curbs, bubble of streetlamp light
half-melted-away dirty snow on the ground
before going home & explaining nothing to anyone
until in 2008 John Bennett—unlikely his novels
will be acclaimed in his life-time, now—told me
that what he celebrated was when people finally
stopped feeling it necessary to celebrate, January 2.