Ho Ho Ho

[rps]

In 2010, my classes had the benefit of a visit by a local poet who regularly entered and won Poetry Slams. Poetry Slams are competitions where the entrants extemporaneously write and recite free verse poetry on random assigned topics.

During his visit, I always wrote on the same topic assigned by our visitor.

This one was on Christmas.

Ho, Ho, Ho

I’ve never tried to remember that Christmas,

But sometimes scenes sneak inside my head.

Not nightmares, exactly, but discordant

Noises that jar life’s balance.

Like some greeting card or market magazine cover

We were bound for the grandparents.

Christmas at their ranch on the Rio,

El Paso, Texas.

 

800 miles in an 8 year old Dodge

Wedged in with luggage, packages

Squirmy sister pasted beside me

Little one pasted to her.

Two long days there, arriving Christmas Eve

In time for a dinner, 10 cousins, 4 aunts and uncles, 6 great aunts and uncles,

Booze, loud laughter, arguments, joy.

 

Christmas morning! Charge the packages,

Rip the paper, gotta find those toys.

Cousin Susie squeals at her doll,

Her brother gloats and holds his bb gun aloft.

Grandmother gave me socks, yes socks.

Sister Danni got a slip, Amanda a jumper.

My father got a tie, and I watched Uncle Bob

Put a check in his pocket.

 

All day my father’s face shape-changed.

More reds and eyebrows that drew closer

And somehow darker

Mother grew more defensive every minute.

After the dinner brawl that night

I listened through the wall.

Mom and Dad discussed the day,

Loud and angry voices late into the night.

 

Mother Nature delivered a rare gift that night.

She blanketed Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma

With one to two feet of snow. Travel stopped.

No one owned a snow plow on Route 66.

Father’s temper blazed anyway.

I wondered if he would melt our way home.

We packed, slammed car doors, and if the wheels had traction

He would have laid rubber.

 

Four days later we pulled in our drive.

Mom and Dad hadn’t said a word in three days.

I remember that Christmas

Only when I let my guard down.