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A Question for Saint Nicholas

December 6th the Feast of St. Nicholas
How did you morph into Macy’s mascot
from holding a Turkish bishopric  
and being the scourge of heretics.
I’m curious to know how this came about.

“If you must know, I gave a secret gift,
a sack of gold dropped through a window,
a dowry for a poor man’s daughter
to save her from life as a prostitute.”

That explains the gifts but it’s still unclear
about the one-night circumnavigation
of the globe in a sleigh pulled by reindeer
but, back to my original question, 
how did it happen that you were waylaid
from Turkey to the Turkey Day parade? 

“That’s a convoluted legacy. 
The Dutch in the 17th century
brought me to the New World, a nursery
rhyme made me red-suited, fat and jolly.
It was only in the last century
‘shill’ was added to my biography. 
What they got right is generosity”. 

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