Decorating / Rik Roots

Decorating

I start with the lights. Good friends I’ve loved,
they start with the tree – sought and bought with bristles
and cones, balanced on a stand in the front room. Heirloom
baubles then mixed with glitter and gauzes, chocolates
and candlelights, each layer added as a conversation,
their story wrapping christmas fresh for the year. No,

I start with the lights, check each bulb in its socket
before I wind them round my plastic spruce, settle the plug,
switch the show on. I pause with each snowy card received:
a smile for the decoded signature; changed addresses noted
in my dieting address book, shedding its leaves. Then I tack
holly and mistletoe to my front door, a dozen
sticky berries to greet the unknown year.

~~
Rik Roots, December 2001
from PaleoRik, 2017 

This work by Rik Roots is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. Based on a work at http://poems.rikweb.org.uk/.

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