chinese christmas

in a country where religion was supposed to be banned,
where icons had been wondrously destroyed &
the ability to worship had been smacked away,
a young woman journeyed to teach english, straight out of
college, in order to get her start in what she believed
would be the next empire,
after the one that she’d been born in,
had crippled up & died from the inside &
gotten beat to a bloody pulp from the outside,
as empires do
(when they stretch themselves too thin)---
now,
during her holiday in china,
being happy that she didn’t have to see any crucifixes
standing 100 feet high or more
like those towering in her native tennessee,
our young aspiring atheist was
writing up her lesson plan for the coming week in january,
not having to give any credence to that commercial holiday
so worshipped in the west
which rears its head every 25th of december.

there was a knock at her door &
when she opened it, three of her fellow teachers, all chinese, were standing there
with presents & crucifix necklaces on,
wishing simultaneously & aloud
“merry christmas!” to the young atheist teacher---
she quickly realized that just like she had been assumed to be
some kind of right-wing, republican, pro-military, cowgirl,
when she arrived,
she also had been assumed to be
christian.

the young woman could not hide the disgust that showed on her face &
she said in the most polite manner that she could muster,
“i’m not christian. sorry. i don’t celebrate christmas.”

with that, one of the teachers began to cry,
reacting like some church marm straight outta’ the bible belt,
whose whole world had just been shattered---
when the other two teachers started to consul her,
the young american teacher tried to smile as sweetly as she could,
closing the door on all three of them
(and locking it).