CASUALTY

By Damen O'Brien

On the busiest day of the

year, even harder than the

shifts of stomach pumping,

of broken legs, gravel-rash

Christmas present injuries,

of brother-battered-brother

like old bible stories, even

the quiet crowd of women

with prints on their necks,

or the nearly successful

brought in under watch

or the successful, brought

in under sheets, was finding

the waiting-room Santa,

rotund, beery, long after the

presents have been opened,

sobbing into his false beard.

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