Published: January 31, 2008

How much of life happens on holidays?

On silent car trips with radios playing

Christmas classics or Irish ballads?

Or at dining room tables

with wine glasses clinking

and grandparents thinking of one more year

The kids are staying up late tonight

and their parents are waiting for the right time to leave.

It’s not that they don’t like it here—

it’s just…it’s just another year.

And how many times can we see the glow

before it becomes the same old sun we saw

all those years that we played pretend?

We should try to feel something

or do something special

or not let the pressure ruin our year.

Alone in the living room,

I walk to the tree and notice

the back is completely bare.

But I like the way it’s not too bright.

And I hope it looks the same next year.