Cheers Max I have a Yule tree that grows in a big pot in the garden -and it
gets bigger every year !!
All those discarded trees :-(
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 31 December 2014 05:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: happy new year, poetryetc!
Christmas Trees
Days to go before Twelfth Night
and I'm stumbling on the pavement
stubbing my toes on pine trees -
last week in those apartments
they were propped up, lit up,
crowned with angel or star.
At the base piled up gifts
wrapped in red and green, tied
with gaudy ribbons. Kids
wrote notes to Santa, helped
mother in the kitchen, fretted
that they lacked a chimney.
Red stockings fastened
to high window ledges.
The shopping! in the elevator
dog and I, nostrils twitching,
leaned towards bulging
bags of food, leaned back
as pine-tree pongs assailed us,
and prickly pine-arms pushed
us to the elevator corner.
I spoke to a human behind one,
smaller than the tree he'd bought.
Wonderful custom, he grumbled.
Outside town, acres had been
clear-felled of these, next year's
crops were in the offing.
Have a good one, everyone
was saying to everyone.
These days, happy for others,
I don't do Christmas.
Music, yes, croaking first
verses of old carol favorites,
leaving the choirs to finish.
I wrapped some books, recently
smuggled in (unwarranted expense),
propped them by our bed
at midnight, saying Let's open
our parcels now, then sleep.
Bad form. Christmas breakfast,
two of us and the dogs,
a certain ruefulness.
At least we didn't have a tree.
Now I'm walking a dog,
our nostrils twitching -
superfluous evergreens
endanger our outing -
wishing the world preferred
the artificial everlasting
totally kitschy trees that get
squeezed back in their box
like resolutions briefly
on show for the time of year,
seeing out the old, seeing in the new.
29 December 2014 / Seattle / Max R=
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