She bought the star from an old lady;
it was made from bamboo sticks and rice paper
in three colors: red, white and green.
A yellow bulb glowed inside, like a small heart,
when she plugged it to the ceiling socket.
She hung it at the front of her house.
Her husband said it was nice,
her neighbors thought it quaint, wonderful.
What a marvel it was! Something beautiful
conceived, and so delicately crafted
by the hand of a fellow countryman, a farmer.
She smiled whenever she saw it,
she walked under it proudly.
It was folk art, she declared,
secretly thinking
it made her house
look more like a home
for the holidays.
They won't even be here for Christmas,
the tickets for Hong Kong had already been booked.
Mara was already thrilled about shopping,
the twins, Jim and Kyle, cried for Disneyland.
She herself wouldn't mind
spending time with her husband,
and a cup of cocoa,
in their hotel suite.
On the morning before their flight,
she checked the suitcases one last time.
They had to do it by themselves
because the maids had left already, and anyway
they were all too lazy to pack early.
Dad had started the car and was honking his horn
for everyone to climb in so they could leave.
She was the last to get out of the house,
and when she looked up she was surprised
to see the lantern,
its colorful rice paper tails
fluttering in the breeze.
She sighed,
thinking it quaint,
and beautiful,
but realizing it was all just a waste.
The car honked and she got in,
and they drove off to the airport.
Author notes
It is unfortunate that the gap between poor and rich just seems to get wider and wider every year. The elite can no longer find truth in the face of poverty: a hard life, a one-room house, and the hope that tomorrow there will be food on the table settling hard on your gut like a heavy stone. "The simple life" isn't all it's cut out to be. Don't demean it by declaring it's the fountain of true happiness!
To a better world, Happy Holidays.
A contest entry
- O Holy Night by Nicole Hanna.
600 points, ended December 11, 2006, 11 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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Star-tling!
I think you've caught something of what it really means to experience Christmas. Just watch out for the humbugs, girl.
EH.
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Amen to that. lol. I like how you had something to say in your author notes, but that the tone in your poem was such that it didn't appear to be generalized or impersonal. You really did tell a story, and that's what I was looking for. There were moments which struck me a little to prose-ish, and this read exactly like a story and not a poem with a story in it, but the distinction is a slight one and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the piece. Thank you very much for entering.
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Thank you. When I saw your contest, I knew I just had to write something. This prose-poem came out of me partly in anger and indignation, and partly in guilt. I'm with a social organization that builds homes for the poor and we just had a build last weekend. Living in the community was hard for me, not in the sense that I was deprived of the material luxuries I am used to, but that I was constantly reminded of how poor people dream so little, and how they seem to believe that they can only afford to hope so little. *sigh* I just had to let that out too. The prose-ish feel comes from it being spontaneously written. I hope you don't mind.
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