Do you send Christmas cards? Here’s why you should

CHRISTMAS CARDS

When the first one arrived in November, I placed it unopened

On the old mahogany sideboard, where it languished.

A week later, there were half a dozen more to heap on top of it,

And now, a daily scattering on the doormat, reminding me

That Christmas is here again, only weeks since the last one,

Delivering itself a piece at a time, as I stack and restack

The unopened envelopes as if avoidance will hold back time’s tide

And I will not age, my animals and owls will not die,

The garden weeds will not grow, and the air itself will pause

On an intake of breath, while I scrabble for names and addresses

And the prettiest image from my stock of folded printings.

But on my office desk, singled out from last year’s invasion

Are the changes of names and addresses sent by friends

Whose new details I have not yet noted, since between receipt

And now, there were paintings to finish, poems to write

And shadows to shift. Some things were so difficult

That I’d wake in the night trying to undo the mental knots.

And now the year is over and my deadline for updates

Is the day I send out the cards. So, for now, they wait, and wait,

My guilt dusting their envelopes, as I prevaricate.