What Motivates the Shape a Child’s Overactive Imagination Is to Take?

In my head
I got shot by Santa

‘Twas the late afternoon before Christmas
When ole’ big red pulled out a pistol
From behind a gold-buckled belt
Tucked beneath his bowl full of jelly
Right in front of the children’s hospital
And went a’ stompin’ ‘cross the parking lot
On the hunt for creatures unstirred

And there I sat
Dumbfounded in daydream
In the backseat of my mother’s Ford Taurus
My life unhinged
Hanging in the balance
Suspended in phantasmic disbelief
As Carol of the Bells played for the 10,000th time
On 94.5 FM

He ho-ho-hoed
And pop-pop-popped
Into my window
Then stomped right back
Jinglin’ and a’ janglin’
‘Cross the parking lot without a care
Through the same double doors
I had skipped through just moments earlier
As my mother and I delivered
Adopt an Angel presents
For the sick children inside