Family Means Expectations: A Country Christmas Poem by Charlotte Ballard

In a hidden valley-
A covered bridge
Decorated with holiday lights
Glow white, green
And blushing red, all around
A wreath centered
Over mud-dirtied snow.
A promise of a homecoming
With snowmen, lit from within
And lights from every window.
Church - across the way-
Decorated as well, with
Lights in the belltower.
All this -I see,
As I walk home.

No, that's not the truth,
It's a picture of what I want
To be, in my frost-nipped
Home, promises of Santa
And of divine forgiveness
Welcoming all strangers
Home.