Christmas Past Poem by Christopher Shepheard

You were like looking in from the rain
On a Christmas Eve, when the hearth is ablaze,
When the warmth oozes out through the window pane
And the sodden byways glisten and glaze
To a smile and a promise of joy tomorrow
Without any sorrow.

But Christmas past cannot banish the chill
Of a burned-out fire and an empty grate,
For your eyes shine not, and your voice is still
Where you dallied and lingered and laughed of late,
And I shall look in at you out of the thaw,
Nevermore.

(1983)