The Reindeer with the Map

Now you know Dasher

And What’s-It

And Who’s-It

And Whomever

But the reindeer

Nobody knows about

Is not the one
With the bright red nose

It’s Geo, the Reindeer with the Map

While Santa and the Reindeer

Are out on Christmas night

Delivering toys

To children

All over the world

Geo is back at the North Pole

On the radio

Consulting his trusty map

And helping guide them

To every house and chimney

Geo was only three-reindeer-years-old

When she first discovered

A love of cartography

Which means making maps

And charts of different places

She was wandering the halls

Of Prancer Academy

And she walked into the library

Where Santa kept his collection

Of globes and photos

Of states and kingdoms

And countries

And counties

And inlets

And peninsulas

Geo was transfixed

Which means she fell instantly in love

With the different edges

And lines

That curved

And corralled

Around names

Of places

Santa had visited

As she grew up

All her friends

Wanted desperately

To become one of the reindeer

Who pull Santa’s sleigh

But not Geo

She wanted to stay behind

On Christmas night

And help make the journey
As efficient

And swift

As possible

When graduation day came

From the Academy

Geo received her diploma

From Prancer himself

And when he leaned in

To ask her

What she wanted

Her next opportunity to be

She asked him

If he could put in

A good word for her

With the jolly man, himself

The next day

Geo had a meeting with Santa

That did not go well

Santa didn’t think

His trip could get any better

Than it was

And he had designed

The path and plan years ago

So why change it?

Geo was crestfallen

Which means very sad

And disappointed

But she went back to her stable stall

And kept working on her Christmas map

Because she wanted to be ready

To prove Santa wrong

If the chance ever presented itself

That year, there was a terrible storm

On Christmas Eve

And Santa got thrown off-course

Late that night, there was a knock

On Geo’s stable door

It was Mrs. C.

She had been sent to find Geo

Because the other reindeer knew

That she had a path

With contingencies

Which means plans

For when other plans

Don’t go as planned

Geo galloped to North Pole Headquarters

And the head navigator

Handed the radio over to her

She had brought all her maps

And notebooks

And as soon as she got Santa

On the horn

(Which is another name

For the radio)

She managed to get him

On a different track

And help him

Escape the storm

And finish up the night

An hour earlier than normal

When Santa returned

To the North Pole

He made Geo

His new Reindeer Planner

And every year since then

Geo has guided Santa’s sleigh

While it might be more fun

To be one of the reindeer

Pulling the sleigh

In every great venture

There are all kinds of jobs

And important roles

That have to be filled

And it’s important

To spend a little time

Thinking about all the people

(Or reindeer)

Who don’t get songs

Sung about them

Reindeer like Geo

Who saved the day

And the sleigh