Making Christmas Last Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

Others have done it before us,


why not me I wonder, saving the last

sliver of fruitcakewrapped peculiarly in star glow:

aluminum foil? may it multiply to become many feasts should I skid

into harder times towards winter in the New Year.

far from here on the slick streets in the slick world.



Ironing the wrapping paper out with its sleds, its snowmen

its cheeriness and holly and the rest of it,

I will paper the WALLS with it

the incorrigible bows

and the slippery ribbons of green and gold and the ornaments open in storage boxes I dont want to stow

glittering even in January still when cold sunrays hit their surfaces

through the freezing panes I cannot afford to curtain.



how can I bear to store you, glimmerings

this year I never will. Im making Christmas last more than Christmas past the chill of orange the candy cane thrill

and Star and stable and the angels lingering ever so splendidly near the spindly tree I love I will breathe in the perfumes of: fir or pine and balsam knowing you are mine o my evergreen Tree

all the bells of joy incessantly let them ring let me sing it over in my sleep when the world with its dearth wants to snatch it away, Jesus came today and nestled in the straw of my heart invisibly

to be born again I will not let him go!

into all that world weariness into the dirty snow on the block, Alone.



mary angela douglas 1 september 2020