Over the years the decking of my house has become more elaborate. Every room had its share of holiday decor – figurines, snow globes, even action figures. Of course there was also the tree, the lights, the porch ‘treatment’ & of course festive towels & linens. Friends would add ornaments to the magic. Much of it was done for our Christmas feast guests or friends who would drop by. Thanks to covid19 restrictions that isn’t going to happen to the same extent this year.
Perhaps that’s just as well so that I could give some of those things a rest. Let’s leave the snow globe collection in the box for change, what’s the point of that kitch crèche? As a result things remain in their bins & boxes. In fact as I sorted what to put out this year I tossed things. Thanks for the memories but bye bye.
Opting for simplicity meant less staple gun noise 🙂 The lights went up, the tree went up, the linens got washed & will be used but the bulk of the treasure remain in their bins & boxes. You know not having all that hanging tinsel is fine. Next year maybe they’ll get hung in the trees on the front lawn.
The festive lights remained a must though because they aren’t just for me, they are for everyone & anyone who sees them. This year, in out neighbourhood, they seem to have gone up sooner & gotten fancier. I’ve going out some nights after supper to do a walk around different blocks to enjoy them. I stopped to talk to one woman about her lights & she said, what I figured most people are thinking, ‘we need lights in this dark covid climate.’
https://topoet.ca/2016/12/16/lights-delight-2016/
Yes, let there be less interior clutter & more external light.
The Word Is
this was this word
I knew a child
it was Welsh or Gaelic
it meant love
a kind of love
I no longer experience
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I learned it from a neighbour
of my grandmother’s
when I was visiting Wales
one summer
she gave me toast
with mayo and tomatoes
she baked the bread herself
I’ve never tasted bread like that again
sort of burned and peppery
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I didn’t really like it
but I liked her
she taught me all these words
how to say things
I don’t remember
about plants playing
the in sunlight
about kittens saving puppies
she made me laugh
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then I came back to Canada
all I could remember was that one word
the word I’ve forgotten
for love
not just any kind of love
I used to feel for a boy in school
he wasn’t even in my class
I would feel it whenever I saw him
but when I didn’t see him
I didn’t even think of him
I never even knew his name
just the way his eyes would make me feel
even if he wasn’t looking at me
I’d spot him
and feel this yearning
not to know him
but just to look at him
to watch him
playing with the other boys
they would run shout tackle each other
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if you asked me what I was feeling
I couldn’t tell you
I might have said that word
I no longer remember
for a feeling I no longer have
for someone
I can’t in my mind
beyond his eyes
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all I see is this scramble of bodies
tussling in the school yard dirt
then us lining up to go back into the school
sitting in rows in the class room
trying to learn math
spelling
that feeling gone in the terror
of being asked to answer the teacher
I didn’t want to be there’
wanted to be lost in the feeling
in that yearning
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what was
that word
TOpoet 