Lack of funds; lots of trees

/lack of funds; lots of trees

Subj: Lack of Funds, Lots of Trees
Date: 96-12-21 18:44:01 EST
From: Sackvill gold hon men


Goodbye to gifts,
to sending Christmas cards.
Goodbye to baked oysters on Christmas eve,
to beef, Yorkshire pudding, fruit cake, and eggnog.

They hung the canvas she'd painted
of a fir in the forest with lights,
put out the small, shiny, holly tree;
the costume-jewelry tree
on black velvet in a silvery frame;
the top-of-the-tv
ceramic tree with lights.
Christmas.

Three days before Christmas Day a son
was lent an artificial tree,
brought it home, put it up in
the usual place. It looked lovely
with their ornaments.
Christmas Eve he
drove by a Christmas tree lot
after work,
saw the unsold trees being
given away, stopped,
chose a 7-foot fir,
lush, fragrant, well-shaped.
No ornaments were left,
so it stood bare as in the
forest.

A hush settled as
the six trees,
small, large, made, given, and lent,
seemed to bow together into
a circle of greenery,
radiating Christmas peace....