Holiday Traditions
By Anna Alexander

Two trees decorated Thanksgiving Day
Await Christmas
Stockings await fulfilling treats
Cookies baking make fragrant the house
Titillating the mind with remembered tastes
Logs send fireworks, shooting stars
To meet the darkened sky
Smoke escapes floating lazy
Rivulets of chiffon haze
About the fire screen
Friends laughter makes music
Undulated notes tinkle through the house
The mailbox contains a yearly flood of greetings
Endearing because they seldom arrive more often
Packages beribboned play peek a boo
In all the closet spaces
A gentle shake hopefully reveals what patterned paper
Carefully conceals
Candles flicker wavering shadows on the walls
Pine, and fir and cedar perfume the air
It is Christmas time and the world waits
For the New Year to begin
Hearts hope this time we get it right---
Hope there will be
Peace on Earth
If only for a night!

anna alexander
12/08/97
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