Christmas 2025
The street flashes in the freeze,
In every window, candles, a tree.
Each house bejewelled,
Turned by gem-strings
Into gingerbread castles
Iced with neon gumdrops.
Snowflakes settle
With a silent finality,
And we hunker down
In this season of bravado
Against the ravening dark.
And in the icy gutter
There are thumbtacks
Beneath my tire.
The giver, no doubt,
Wraps other presents now,
But these will have bright ribbon
And will bring praise
For thoughtfulness.