Thursday, December 15, 2005\r\n\r\n\'Twas the Night Before ... \r\nThis came from my Beaumont neighbor, Denise Owen.\r\n\r\n Up on the housetop ... ?\r\n\r\nThe Night Before Christmas\r\nOur Town, 2005 \r\n\r\nTis the night before Christmas and all through the town\r\nDebris of all kind is stacked in a mound.\r\nHouses are beat up, trees are not there\r\nThe landscape is different and curiously bare.\r\n\r\nFences are gone and the dogs have got out\r\nInsurance agents are nowhere about.\r\nMold in its grandeur is lining the walls\r\nInside the cabinets and all through the halls.\r\n\r\nMoms are exhausted and daddies are spent\r\nThey\'re paying their house notes and now paying rent\r\nFEMA is long gone, the Red Cross has split\r\nSearching for new towns disasters have hit.\r\n\r\nThe children are restless as they lay in their beds\r\nTroubled thoughts filling their heads\r\nCan Santa find them amid all the rubble\r\nOr will he think it\'s just not worth the trouble?\r\n\r\nThen out of the night comes the sound of small hoofs\r\nPrancing and pawing atop the blue roofs\r\nThough Santa\'s landmarks were not where they\'d been\r\nThe shine of the trailers guided him in\r\n\r\nHe managed somehow to deliver the toys\r\nTo all the deserving good girls and boys\r\nAnd they heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight\r\n\"It takes more than Rita to mess up this night!\"\r\n\r\nBlog posting, http://underthenews.blogspot.com/ \r\n