The Christmas People
put this hat on me.
A bright red hat with
__
thick white fur. And
a big ball that blocks one eye.
So it begins.
__
For the sake of
the Christmas People,
I climbed a cold ladder today.
__
Scrabbling crab-like
across rough black shingles.
Putting up the lights.
__
I could have died, you know.
But if you die falling down from
putting up the Christmas lights
__
it would be a good
story at the wake.
The Christmas People
__
love the lights. Almost
as much as the Frasier tree we got,
sweet-smelling as a stand of pine.
__
They love the tree most of all.
And that music. One of the People
brought a bunch of music
__
from the garage.
No, really. Stacks of it.
It would take weeks to hear it all.
__
The Christmas People
can’t get enough of
that music.
__
Now, there are little statues of
Mrs. Claus and Santa Claus
on tables and shelves.
__
And reindeer candles,
smiling snowman cups and
red-blue-yellow-green indoor lights.
__
On a credenza near the door,
four small, green ceramic letters
spell ‘N-O-E-L.’
__
Sometimes, they spell
‘E-L-O-N,’ which now
I think of it is a
__
crazy billionaire. Sometimes,
I make them spell ‘L-O-N-E.’
Like the ranger. Then,
__
next morning, someone
has made them spell out
‘O-L-E-N.’
__
That was the name of a
portrait company, Olen Mills Studio,
where I grew up.
__
There’s a black-and-white Olen Mills
photo of My Dad and Mom and
my 5 siblings and me.
__
I look like Charlie
Brown, maybe 6 years old.
That was about when I
__
stayed up late one Christmas
Eve. In my sisters’ bedroom
at 303 Beechtree Lane.
__
They had a second-floor window
that looked out over the
crabapple tree.
__
I propped my chin upon
my hands. Stared up at a
starry, moonlit Ohio sky.
__
Determined to see Santa
and his reindeer cross the
moon that night.
__
Alright. So, I was once
a Christmas Person,
too.
__
I will turn ‘E-L-O-N’
back into ‘N-O-E-L.’ And go make a
snowman cup of bedtime tea.
___________
december 2019 | douglas john imbrogno
