Christmas

Unknown

Christmas

I had almost forgotten the singing in the streets,

Snow piled up by the houses, drifting

Underneath the door into the warm room,

Firelight, lamplight, the little lame cat

Dreaming in soft sleep by the hearth, mother dozing,

Waiting for Christmas to come, the boys and me

Trudging over blanket fields waving lanterns to the sky.

I had almost forgotten the smell, the feel of it all,

The coming back home, with girls laughing like stars,

Their cheeks, holly berries, me kissing one,

Silent-tongued, soberly, by the long church wall;

Then back to the kitchen table, supper on the white cloth,

Cheese, bread, the home-made wine;

Symbols of the nights' joy, a holy feast.

And I wonder now, years gone, mother gone,

The boys and girls scattered, drifted away with the snowflakes,

Lamplight done, firelight over,

If the sounds of our singing in the streets are still there,

Those old tunes, still praising;

And now, a life-time of Decembers away from it all,

A branch of remembering holly spears my cheeks,

And I think it may be so;

Yes, I believe it may be so.

Leonard Clark

in Time and Tide, December 1959