
Eye of the Needle
Eye of the Needle
by Ira Lightman
Camels shouldn't vote for death.
They needn't die at Christmas.
On the 25th, Christ's birth
is the defeat of Adam's curse
which was death. The rich
make human life ridiculous
and cold on our visit to Bath.
We particularly notice,
much more than in the North
East, in Bath the homeless
are often drugged to the dearth
of possibility for solace.
The plump wattled rich
need perspective of Christmas
on eternity. The messiah's birth
ends any hiding in space.
He seeks us before time's up, earth-
swaddled, oak-boxed, in darkness,
hoping for elegy and Lethe.
None of camels, vote for fairness.
Or "in the midst of life" the death
without future is of the rich's peace.