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Covid Christmas

By Samuel Strathman

PROMPT—During Covid-19 ...

Haven’t seen a tall stack

of Christmas trees

all year –


just their shadows looming,

miserly watchmen

scrutinizing the public.


We’ll dig up

yesteryear’s trees

as stand-ins,

old flames arriving

when you need them most.


Dust off the old apron.


Cook any and all misgivings

about being laid-off

three weeks short

of a full pension.


Blundering can still be heard

at headquarters

like a raccoon

scratching up and down

the fence every night.


Nothing else

to show for 2020

unless you count

the same unpaid bills –

foreclosure inevitable.

 

Samuel Strathman is a poet, author, educator, and the founder/editor-in-chief of Floodlight Editions. He writes from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.


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