Goodwill to Men

Overheard in advent
was this complaint
of a bus driver
to a passenger,
‘Don’t call me brother!
We’re not of the same mother.
 
And as the 24
passed Trafalgar Square,
there by the giant Christmas tree
were the police
arresting a freak
for disturbing the peace.
 
Yards from Westminster Abbey
were sleeping bags of the shabby
seeking sanctuary in shop doors
as pedestrians ignored
the sick, the lame, the poor,
and stores implored, Spend more!