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Visit our all new poetry website www.bayeuxpoetry.com
Michael Rose; Illustrations by Brona Keenan
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COMING OUT IN DECEMBER 2006 |
Santa Claus is tired. He has been making and delivering toys for more years than he cares to remember. So, one day, he decides he needs a little rest, a sabbatical. He might even decide to retire. He gathers his elves together for a meeting at the North Pole and tells them the alarming news. He’s arranged a management contract with a group of men in suits and they will be in charge of Christmas until further notice. Santa himself is off to the sunny beaches of Australia, with Mrs. Claus, a few of his most trusted elves and his Christmas sleigh. All goes well, for a time. But then the new management starts to make big changes in the way things operate at the North Pole. Working conditions get changed, production gets changed, quality control is changed -- even the handling of letters from girls and boys all over the world gets changed. The elves are not happy, the reindeer are not happy; not happy at all. So they send a secret letter off to Santa in Australia, telling him about their troubles.
Santa is truly worried. He heads home on his own to see what he can do. But the new managers want nothing to do with this old man whose time, they say, is passed. The doors of Santa’s own workshop are closed to him and he is sent packing.
Back in Australia, among his elves and some of the new friends he has made there, Santa decides strong measures are called for. He trains a herd of eight kangaroos to pull his Christmas sleigh, he enlists the support of the locals and they all head back north to make things right.
There are some adventures along the way and a dramatic confrontation at the North Pole, but eventually Santa and his crowd of helpers and supporters overcome the forces that have co-opted Christmas and, with just hours to spare, bring things back to the way they were and always must be.
Michael E. Rose is a Canadian journalist and broadcaster whose reporting and travel have taken him to Latin America, Africa, Europe, India, Southeast Asia and Australia. He has worked for major media organizations around the world, including the CBC, Maclean's, UPI, Rado France International, the Sydney Morning Herald, and Reuters. From 2003 to 2006, he was Chief of Communications and Publications for Interpol, based at the agency's headquarters in Lyon, France. Acclaimed author of "The Mazovia Legacy" and "The Burma Effect."
Brona Keenan is an artist and illustrator ("First Words - Patty Kay's Dreamworks," Bayeux Arts). She lives in Yarra City, Victoria, Australia.
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Bayeux Arts gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Government of Canada through The Book Publishing Industry Development Program. Copyright © 2007 Bayeux Arts