(winter Poems) Christmas Letters Poem by Janice Windle

In December
reminders of friends from past lives
dropp daily on the mat, renewing ties
that every year become more frayed,
retain still fewer strands from which
to weave our bridges,
span the miles and years,
my address book fretted with deletions.

In December
absent friends crowd back,
on paths parallel
and diverged.
Good news passed on: careers,
retirements, births, successes.
Bad news passed over:
deaths and failures braved; a web
of recent memories
spun in Christmas letters.
Inventories of events, and more
deletions.

Every year, more deletions...
and I fear the postman will
one day in March deliver back
a card I’ve sent this month,
maybe to an aging friend
whom I’ve not contacted
in spring or summer on the phone,
who now must be deleted,
is “not known”.