Tuesday, December 30, 2025

The Receding Christmas

All those Christmas gifts​...
What remains of them is
​the slightly withered wrapping,
​the memories.

Their meaning and worth
saved in sunset-yellow cases,
as scents.
The whiffs I captured
through an untrained nose
​as a child,
and a trained ​Google searcher
​as a grown-up,
​are all neatly stacked.
​With them,
​I satiate, in futility,
​a life-evolved taste for posterity.

And, as a golden sunset
reminds me of
a receding Christmas​ vibe,
I seek the scent this year.
​For that whiff of longing.
​Oh, and a desire for belonging.

-- Leslie