• doing the laundry
    the cloths swish around
    the basement is cold
    cold and hard
    the paper in my hand is yellow with age
    and has rips in it
    the carols on that paper have been read every single year
    again and again
    since before i was born.
    i sing those carols
    my dad criticing my singing at every line
    "better get in tune before the relatives come"
    true. it's nice and warm in the living room.
    my brother and a family friend playing chess.
    i play mancala with my parents.
    i play the piano.
    i like to play carols.
    i like hanging ornaments on the tree.
    it's all familiar to me.
    it's my familiar cristmas.
    everyone has their own kind of cristmas,
    it's not wrong to have it one way,
    it's just diferent cristmas,
    diferent and the same.
    this is mine.