Americani Christiani

Walking past yuletide homes
—some pretty,
some pretty tacky—

funny how too many Christmas lights,
when you get right up close,
makes a house look dark.

Across from St. Patrick’s,
a cross painted in six white
Christmas lights

illuminates the stars and stripes
billowing in a breeze,
cold porch steps,

and a plastic, light-up crèche
where Mary meek and Joseph pious
gaze upon a childless manger.