Painting by Egor Zaytsev (Russia)
PAST PRESENCE
Dressing the Christmas tree
Used to take all the family
An hour or two to do,
Back then the house hummed
With laughing children,
As each shiny bauble was hung
On the welcoming fir.
Their shouts of glee
Twinkled like the crowning star
Bright atop the highest bough.
Now she does the task alone,
Her eyes twinkling at memories
Of the full long ago.
Each glimmering trinket
Unlocks some olden scene
Of the family gathered
Around the open fire,
Flames adance
Reflecting in the adorned tree
Light drops of time’s passage.
Used to take all the family
An hour or two to do,
Back then the house hummed
With laughing children,
As each shiny bauble was hung
On the welcoming fir.
Their shouts of glee
Twinkled like the crowning star
Bright atop the highest bough.
Now she does the task alone,
Her eyes twinkling at memories
Of the full long ago.
Each glimmering trinket
Unlocks some olden scene
Of the family gathered
Around the open fire,
Flames adance
Reflecting in the adorned tree
Light drops of time’s passage.
Gerard O'Shea
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