Ishmael Reed - The Terrible Threes

His family had no food stamps

and didnt have no tree

The projects were their humble home

in New York on Avenue D

Dont worry mom well supper

cant promise you no lamb

Black Peter went to reform school

for stealing a Xmas ham

for stealing a Xmas ham

He worked a smart street hustle

around Eighth avenue

He plied a little dummy

he threw his voice into

A vagrant stole his dummy

the thing he used to earn

He joined the Nic-o-la-ites

He had no place to turn

He thought for a brief sojourn

He thought for a brief sojourn

They fought the Xmas bosses

who turned Noel to sales

Who took Nick from the people

and gave him to the swells

They made a Nicholas dummy

he threw his voice into

It looked like old Kris Kringle

same weight same height same hue

It fought the Xmas bosses

it was their nudging foe

dont buy their ugly war toys

dont buy their flammable dolls

dont buy the mink wrapped Barbies

they push on girls and boys

This made the bosses angry

what Peter had it say

For them the month of December

was time for a big pay day

And so at Peters party

on Seventh avenue

The bosses sent their hit men

to create a terrible din

to drive Pete to the bin

to drive Pete to the bin

and that is where hes been

Where are you now Black Peter?

the chimneys missing you

The mood of Xmas is not the same

the joy has gone from caroling

Jack Marse has taken back the fun

and killed the Xmas cheer

and killed the Xmas cheer

The Terrible Threes begins on Thanksgiving in the late nineteen-nineties. Its been four years since the Christmas of the Terrible Twos, a Christmas which saw amazing events transpire in the White House of Dean Clift, former fashion model, who rose from Congressman to Vice President, and then to the Presidency after the death of General Walter Scott, hero of Dominica. Dean Clift was a hands-off President who didnt know and didnt care to know about the activities of his advisors, Admiral Matthews, Bob Krantz, Vice President Jesse Hatch, and Reverend Clement Jones, the administrations spiritual advisor.

Clift changed, however, after his wife, Elizabeth, the first lady, was electrocuted while lighting the White House Christmas tree, and he was visited by Saint Nicholas, who revealed to him the fate of former leaders, who had made terrible and tragic mistakes. Saint Nicholas, out to remove his Protestant image as that of a buffoon in a red suit, also warned Clift of a covert operation, developed by Krantz, Jones, and Matthews, code-named Two Birds, a plan to rid America of surplus people and wipe out an African country in possession of nuclear weapons at the same time. Nobody believed Dean Clift, when he discussed his vision before a nationwide television audience, and the Twenty-fifth Amendment regarding Presidential disability was invoked to remove him from office to a private sanatorium about fifty miles from Washington. Saint Nicholas, who had hoped to change the course of history, went back to the drawing board.

Black Peter learns of an imposter Black Peter who gave the toy manufacturers a worrisome time during the Terrible Twos Christmas while a member of a sect which holds Nicholas to be divine. He emerges from Guinea, an island beneath the Caribbean Ocean, to challenge this Peter, a Risto Rasta who has been living in underground Manhattan since a riot that happened during a Christmas party at Madison Square Garden, which was precipitated by Jack Frost, and his goons, an employee of the toy manufacturers and Christmas card merchants. Nance Saturday, a wannabe detective, whom the clues are always ahead of, failed in his attempt to locate Snow Man, a hit man hired by a gangster named Joe Baby to assassinate Boy Bishop, leader of the Nicolaites.