If you lean against the wall of times past
perhaps you’ll still hear the bells that always
ring at midnight; maybe you’ll even breathe
the moist warmth coming from the kitchen
where treats were cooking for Christmas Eve;
and maybe you’ll recognize, in the sounds echoing
among the clanking of dishes and silverware,
familiar voices long ago
departed; perhaps in your hands you’ll feel the chill
lingering from the field after cutting
the pine tree so that it could shine in a corner of the room
with ornaments and silver balls; maybe
even your lips will feel again the dry anguish of
knowing that all of this could end,
while next to the nativity scene with figures of clay
a candle burns. But don’t lean too hard,
to keep the wall from cracking; and in
the present with so many Christmases to come
enjoy the illusion that time hasn’t passed.