My dear boy
Remember this one
Thing that Christmas
Isn’t so much
About getting but
More about wishing
Wishing for things
Wishing for love
And Christmas kisses
Wishing for family
Wishing for snow
But even more
Wishing that this
Feeling on this
Day could be
Felt every day
Merry merry Christmas
My dear boy
It’s on its
Way making its
Way to you
Brown and furry
Plush and warm
Something that listens
Sometimes to hold
If I could
Have I’d wrapped
Myself up and
Sent me instead
But apart we
Must be this
Christmas you there
So instead I
Sent you me
If I were stuffed
Because every boy
Needs a bear
My dear boy
This I know
The great relationships
Of your life
Will be adaptable
They will flex
And move like
A River willow
They will give
Shade like a
Prairie oak when
Life’s blazing heat
Weakens you they
Will wither and
Fall like elms
In late autumn
And then with
Time they will
Sprout again like
Garden daffodils bringing
Glee and joy
These relationships last
Forever because they
Know that they’re
Not there for
Just a season
And in the
Moonlight that blankets
Your now sleeping
Form a distant
Melody dances like
Fireflies above the
Bed prompting me
To study the
Black keys of
Your rib cage
My fingers dancing
Lightly there like
Plump little bumblebees
So as not
To awaken you
But simply to
Play Debussy’s DeLune
Making you into
My music box
And like a
Late April pond
In Northern Wisconsin
We’ve weathered the
Cruelest harshest and
Frigid months of
Our relationship hunkering
Down like foxes
Deep in burrows
Choosing to wait
For winters passing
And like said
Pond continues to
Flow and grow
Beneath the ice
We must choose
To embrace what
We’ve become during
These dead months
Or remember what
We were all
Those seasons ago
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 