Unlucky Gaud
Mary Winters
Hapless Christmas tree -- to those who
value immortality and temperance.
Why not the ephemeral
flash across the plain domestic sky
to dazzle the steady homemaker on entering
the livingroom with a basketful of laundry
tree just standing there full confident
a glad sight in the noonday sun:
ten strings of lights ablaze
golden tinsel garlands shimmering
as they thrill in the air currents
excited by visiting boy in army cap --
our tree an extravagant show in a
simple Cape Cod vacation house.
Yet our regal tree is brave, but never
safe: after years of unruffled growing
the seasonal changes well understood
that unexpected lop, the binding
then the jarring truck ride to its
brief moment of utter glory...
So soon tossed into the yard for
its last trip, to the dump
its naive and self-deluded grand gesture
through -- so the lesser gods see us.
