Jeremiad of the Tadpoles

One of the most evilly honest lines

Of English verse ever composed

Was the Do They Know It’s Christmas lyric,

Tonight, thank God it’s them instead of you,

Evil since its gratitude seems to gloat,

And since it suggests it’s God’s decision

To starve the many while feeding the few.

Indeed, in later renditions, that line

Was the one line changed, to the anodyne

Albeit somewhat more predatory,

Tonight, we’re reaching out and touching you,

Which is a shame, as the lyric came by

Its evil earnestly and honestly—

Who hasn’t felt the shock of gratitude

At the realization the awful

That has just descended on someone else

Could have easily descended on you,

But hasn’t, and what a relief for you!

You don’t have to wish bad things on others

To be glad they didn’t happen to you,

And that’s a little evil, true in you.

Ah, there but for the grace of God, you sigh

Twisting it so that fate decided it,

Your gratitude proving you deserved it.

But it’s here. Grief occurs. It will. To you.

Not all of it, of course not. It couldn’t.

You can’t survive as many ways to die

Or to suffer before death as this world

Invents. But each your own you’ll give and get.

Death to all life’s fisheries will bring death

To you and to each of the cold, deep blue

Ways of going on, with or without you.

It’s them, now and then, but it will be you,

Which is why you’re always thanking something,

Which is actually a form of pleading

You deserve good fortune, showing you know,

Even if you’re not the one suffering,

Even if you’re giving more than you get and

Raking and taking in more than you make,

Even if you spend life’s longings merrily,

Rapaciously, ending as one of the more

Legendary among God’s multi-billionaires,

Dying of cancer peacefully while your body

Finally devours all self, boughten friends

And family at your side, watching you go,

Maybe each or several of them thinking,

Tonight, thank God it’s you instead of me,

It will be you, then, not them, will be you,

Murmuring oh wow, oh wow, or maybe

Ow, ow, ow as you slide, you know, you do

Know now, it will be you. It will be you.