Making Christmas Last Circa 1964 Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

we'll wear Tangee lipstick just for fun
dressing in matching shirtwaists
the tiny flowered kind

with a petticoat flare
the scent of all the perfume testers
at the counters everywhere and

in clouds about us as
we walk out of there too fast
with the sales ladies quivering;

and we must leave behind
a little peremptorilly
in their winter pastels the

cards on sale!
the best part of the Story:
the kind with glitter on the snow roofs

watercoloured, on parchment

the way you're fond of them, in January
when it's too late to send them anywhere.

you'll freeze the last of the cordial cherries
the finest of the refined
and snack on paperbacks,3 for $5

at the dimestore or the book fair
from Last pumpkin time:

the classics kind or the homespun,
with Scholastic's illustrations.
in this our summer nation

in deep winter's clime
the last of our vacation chiming...
our charm bracelets we got at

Christmas jingling and jingling
almost rhyming
like sleigh bells!

mary angela douglas 12 january 2016