Scholar's
Christmass Poem
Scholar's
Christmass Poem
By Dr. Slobermortus Verbosus PhD
(Piled Higher and Deeper)
'Twas the nocturnal segment of the diurnal period preceding the annual yuletide celebration, and throughout the place of residence, kinetic activity was not in evidence among the possessors of this potential, including that species of domestic rodent known as Mus musculus. Hosiery was meticulously suspended from the forpiano coversd edge of the wood burning caloric apparatus, pursuant to the anticipatory pleasure regarding an imminent visitation from an eccentric philanthropist among whose folkloric appellations is the honorific title of St. Nicholas.
The prepubescent siblings, comfortably ensconced in their respective accommodations of repose, were experiencing subconscious visual hallucinations of variegated fruit confections moving rhythmically through their cerebrums. My conjugal partner and I, attired in our nocturnal head coverings, were about to take slumberous advantage of the hibernal darkness when upon the arenaceous exterior portion of the grounds there ascended such a cacophony of dissonance that I felt compelled to arise with alacrity from my place of repose for the purpose of ascertaining the precise source thereof.
Hastening to the casement, I forthwith open the barriers sealing this fenestration, noting thereupon that the lunar brilliance without, reflected as it was on the surface of a recent crystalline precipitation, might be said to rival that of the solar meridian itself -- thus permitting my incredulous optical sensory organs to behold a miniature airborne runnered conveyance drawn by eight diminutive specimens of the genus Rangifer, piloted by a minuscule, aged chauffeur so ebullient and nimble that it became instantly apparent to me that he was indeed out anticipated caller. With his ungulate motive power travelling at what may possible have been more vertiginous velocity that patriotic alar predators, he vociferated loudly, expelled breath musically through contracted labia, and address each of the octet by his or her respective cognomen --" now Dasher, now Dancer, .. " et al - guiding them to the uppermost exterior level of our abode, through which structure I could readily distinguish the concatenations of each of the 32 cloven pedal extremities.
As I retracted my cranium from the erstwhile location, and was performing a 180 degree pivot, our distinguished visitant achieved - with utmost celerity and via a downpiano coversd leap -- entry by way of the smoke passage. He was clad entirely in animal pelts soiled by the ebony residue from the oxidation of carboniferous fuels which had accumulated largely to the plethora of assorted playthings which he bore dorsally in a commodious cloth receptacle.
His orbs were scintillant with reflected luminosity, while his submaxillary dermal indentations gave every evidence of engaging amiability. The capillaries of his malar regions and nasal appurtenance were engorged with blood which suffused the subcutaneous layers, the former approximating the coloration of Albion's floral emblem, the latter that of the Prunus apium, or sweet cherry. His amusing sub- and supralabials resembled nothing so much as a common loop knot, and their ambient hirsute fascial adornment appeared like small, tabular and columnar crystals of frozen water.
Clinched firmly between his incisors was a smoking piece whose gray fumes, forming a tenuous ellipse about his occiput, was suggestive of a decorative seasonal circlet of holly. His visage was wider than it was high, and when he waxed audibly mirthful, his corpulent abdominal region undated in a manner of impectinated fruit gelatin in a hemispherical container. He was, in short, neither more or less than an obese, jocund, multigenarian gnome, the optical perception of whom rendered me risible frolicsome despite every effort to refrain from so being. By rapidly lowering and then elevating one eyelid and rotating his head slightly to one side, he indicated that trepidation on my part was groundless.
Without utterance and with dispatch, he commenced filling the aforementioned appended hosiery with various of the aforementioned articles of merchandise extracted from the aforementioned previously dorsally transported cloth receptacle. Upon completion of this task, he executed an abrupt about face, placed a single manual digit in the forpiano coversd juxtaposition to his olfactory organ, inclined his cranium forpiano coversd in a gesture of leave taking, and forthwith effected his egress by renegotiating (in reverse) the smoke passage. He then propelled himself in a short vector onto his conveyance, directed a musical expulsion of air through his contracted oral sphincter to the antlered quadapeds of burden, and proceeded to soar aloft in a movement hertherto observed chiefly among the seed bearing portions of a common weed. But I overheard his parting exclamation, audible immediately prior to his vehiculation beyond the limit of visibility: "Ecstatic yuletide to the planetary constituency, and to all the selfsame assemblage, my sincerest wishes for a salubriously beneficial and gratifyingly period between sunset and dawn."
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