Christmas from the Outside…Looking In…by Robert M. Katzman
© December 13, 2022
I know what Christmas sounds like
So many songs
Written especially
To bring tears
Tug your heart
Make a person feel
That magic is possible
*
I listened to these
Sentimental cheery songs
Inside my wooden newsstand
After a powerful local
Chicago politician
Who said that I
Somehow
Reminded him of himself
Meaning
“Hustling to make a Buck”
Not knowing I was a runaway
Seeking sanctuary
While making pennies on a newspaper
And he pulled some strings
And gave me electricity
And a radio
In 1966
Magic!
*
When no sane soul would
Be on the frozen streets
And my sliding window
Fogged up from my breath
I heard about Sleighs and Reindeer,
Mysterious Mistletoe
Before I ever kissed a girl
*
From a crack in my roof
Melting snow seeping
I felt icy-cold drops
Falling on my head
My ancient black steel
Smoking kerosene heater
Slowly poisoning me
And the Christmas music
Would play on
*
My stacks of Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Daily News
Chicago Tribune
The Daily Defender
The New York Times
Small stacks then
Towering stacks
In my unknown future
All held down against
Chicago’s fierce icy wind by
Heavy rusty steel clamps
Stolen in the dark
From the
Illinois Central Railroad
*
A self-employed
Sophomore in high school
Living two lives
Anonymous in my school’s hallways
While aggressively
Stopping thieving Truck Drivers
Who called me a “kike”
From stealing my newspapers
No concept of
“a day off”
No ambition to be something
No idea about where
Time might take me
*
Christmas music
For a time
Offered me the illusion
Of kindness, of warmth
Of family
When I had no real “family”
Or any gifts under a tree
But for me
A Jewish boy
No tinseled tree existed
*
Standing in frozen slush
Selling newspapers at Midnight
I didn’t imagine any “Santa”
But the endless mesmerizing
Christmas songs
Gave me a glow
A sense there was a chance
That good things could happen
That love would find me
That I was better than
What I had to do right now
To eat, to live
That I would rise
Someday, somehow
*
I think Christmas reminds me
About when I first fell in love
Like falling into
A volcano of ecstasy
Where being with that girl
Was the reason I was born
That nothing else mattered
That anything was possible
That the glow would last forever
And even though I am old now
Christmas reminds me
Of when I first fell in love
And the world was
Perfect
***
Wherever you are
Whatever you are,
Whomever you love
Merry Christmas!
***
Publishing News!
(Currently seeking representation as a speaker/poet for hire)
Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words
Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.
Please visit my new website: http://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.
Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:
Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.
Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998 (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM
Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping
For: (1) $3.95; (2) $5.95; (3) $7.95; (4) $8.95 (5) $9.95;(6) $10.95
(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9) $13.95 (10) $15.95 (15) $19.95
I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools can call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.
My two latest books are available in the Racine Wis Public Library. Both books are labeled: 921 KAT. ROB on their spines, in autobiography Dept.
Signed Books are also for sale at:
Studio Moonfall Bookstore, 5031 7th St. Kenosha, Wis, email: hello@studiomoonfall