Holiday Blue

Ah, the holidays, how blessed are you?
Among the firs and the poinsettias too.
Christmas is past, the New Year is coming,
By the hearth side, hear the guitar strumming.

[A young woman hides with her boyfriend
in the shadows of her apartment.
She watches as he prepares the “pipe”
and places a small rock in the end of it.
Flames flicker and she takes a hit.
“I wonder what good old mom is
doing right now”, she muses?]

The woman's baking cakes, and pies galore,
how could anyone ask for anything more?
Pouring perky drinks of 'nog and cider,
her dog and her hubby there beside her.

[An older woman works busily
in her kitchen, humming carols.
Her face smiles, but her hands shake
and tears begin to well in her eyes.
Her daughter, where is her daughter?
She had thought maybe this year her
girl would come around, but no.
No visit, no phone calls, no cards,
no nothing.]

The sleigh bells are ringing, can't you hear them?
Let's slice the ham and we'll spread some cheer then.
Light up the sparklers in the yard outside,
Happy, happy, our smiles are beaming wide.

[Darkness reigns, it is early on New Years
morn. Two hands reach fetchingly through
the void, trying to find each other.
One hand is limp, cool, light, almost a
ghost; the other is warm, loving, but seems
to be missing a piece, and is weighted with
scars and loss. They almost touch, then withdraw
again...a new year has begun.]

Tis time for football now, it's New Years day,
the woman watches as time slips away.
Serving hot hors d'oeuvre along with cold beer,
at last forgetting her daughters not here.

The young girl is up, brushing tangled hair,
thinking of her mother, the one not there.
Her boyfriend stirs, but he's a useless lump,
and shakily gives the coffee a pump.

Perhaps the next year, they think wistfully,
they'll be together again, blissfully.
Then she shudders, as tears begin to well,
or never again, only time will tell.