Novel approach

A poem using the title of a well-known novel

Oh Carol, what a day it was – a truly dreadful day

With Darryl and Kate, your parents, mine, and smutty Uncle Ray

Who swiftly polished off the wine and most of all the punch,

Three hours before we’d even thought of serving up the lunch.

The rain fell down, the hours dragged by and, oh, that piercing noise

When Darryl accidentally broke the favourite of Kate’s toys.

And was it more than just a kiss beneath the mistletoe

My father gave your mother? Seems my mother thought it so!

Then Uncle Ray, well gone by now and ever more obscene,

Disgraced us all by what he did when listening to The Queen.

Your father commandeered charades and bored us all to tears

With films and books, unknown to us, from long-forgotten years.

We stuffed ourselves from dawn to dusk on titbits, nuts and chocs,

And groaned with indigestion while we goggled at the box.

The finally, to cap it all, Kate vomited on Darryl.

Oh Carol what a day it was – oh what a Christmas Carol.

(A Christmas Carol)