Christmas in the Desert
Working abroad in the Eighties,
Those were strange December days –
When the office was open as usual,
And the Sun beat down in a haze.
But a few of us Johnny Foreigners
Exchanged a card and a smile –
With a token string of tinsel about our desks,
For the extra mile.
We offered round choc’lates to hesitant colleagues
And kept stopping work for a chat.
Someone must have produced a cracker,
For they wore a paper hat.
We would have shared a tot or two,
As we briefly engaged in hugs –
Though booze was out of the question, of course,
So we chinked our coffee mugs.
The world was becoming more American,
More awareness year-by-year –
And so each time, another trapping of the season
Would appear.
We’d phone our fam’lies later, not yet,
As the locals were called to pray –
But we hummed a carol in the long afternoon,
As the town got on with its day.
Rhyming Couplets 