Since 1995, I've been sending out a gift to my sisters called "A Sister Xmas." It was taken from a season's old poem by Clement Clarke Moore entitled "The Night Before Christmas." Once, a small group of female friends were sitting around over the holidays drinking "spiked" eggnog when I started doing the Christmas poem, substituting words more appropriate for our adult status and before we knew it, "A Sister Christmas" was born. It hasn't changed much except that it was written with my African American sisters in mind and I had not started my peace work. Since then I've had other women tell me that it left a lot of good looking men out (and still does, but we can always add them). The original verse about the men was "And all they had going for them were fantasies of Hollywood treasures, "Billy Dee, Denzel, and Wesley Snipes for good measure." Well, it was the nineties. I haven't sent it out since 2005, but I've had a few requests asking me about it. So, here it is. Enjoy and share as much as you'd like.
“T’was the night before Christmas
And Sisters around the globe
Sat and lamented the fate
Of their tremendous load …
Bills and short change,
Silly men and their war games,
And Christmas just seemed
To bring more of the same!
And all they had going for them
Were fantasies of Hollywood Treasures:
Smoldering eyes, honey or chocolate-touched skin
Perhaps six feet or more for good measure.
When wonders of wonder,
But who should appear?
It was a little brown man
Pulled by eight tiny reindeer.
He jumped down from his sleigh
And landed with a thud.
He wiped off all the soot
And removed all the mud.
Then he lay down his bag
That was filled to the brim
With gifts and fine things
That were given to him …
For the Sisters of the world
Who had lost all their joy,
This bag had the stuff, girls,
This bag had the toys!
And wondrous gifts
Did we finally behold
‘Cuz inside that bag –
Girlfriends, I tell ya, was gold!
From his bag his plucked wisdom
And then added some style ~
And the deeper he dug,
It got wild, simply wild!
And added to the fray,
And gift wrapped real tight,
Was a New Attitude and
Past Wrongs made Right.
And last, but not least,
Included in this radiance,
Was Spirit and Hope
And a dash of Divine Guidance.
And so as the story goes
With no second guessing,
We were left with a
Lifetime of Strength
- A Basketful of Blessings!
And I, growing wiser,
Watched as his flew out of sight
With a Merry Christmas to each of Us
And to All a Good Life!!!
PK McCary, Copyright 1993
To the sisters of the world, from the tapestry of ethnicities, faiths, and across the Globe, I'm offering a most blessed season of seasons and a wonderfully exciting New Year!!
Your Sister ... PK
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