Get your mangers here

~ Hetty Eliot

A Christmas poem

And the angel declared unto us,
“Mangers! Get your mangers here!”
Be it done unto me, I said, give me a manger
So I bought myself a manger
It looked easy enough to assemble
And I tossed the instructions to the side
Some wooden slats and a few nails
How hard could it be?
But it wasn’t very comfortable
Gave me a backache every night
Splinters in my face and hands
After some years I packed it up and went back to the angel
Still hawking his wares
I beseech thee, angel, take it back, I said
It’s too hard, I don’t like it, why’d you give that to a baby?
“Did you read the instructions?” he asked
“Did you think a manger was a crib?”
A baby is laid in a manger, I replied
“Next time, fool, read the instructions,” the angel declared unto me
“You assembled it amiss
A manger is the very cross
That you were born to die on.”