ADVENTURES IN FICTION

Yeah, it's too late for Christmas poems, and this one's kinda sappy, but I don't write poetry often, composing this when family visited back in December. It doesn't have a title, though a couple have been suggested (my sister-in-law offered "Three Nieces" as a possibility).  Your suggestions are welcome.

Confession: Although I work with kids, and have done so for years, I still feel awkward around them, and the dancing mentioned in the poem below does not come from any place of talent on my part, but because it's just one way I know of to entertain the youngest ones still small enough to be carried and who like to crazy dizzy sense of flying that whirling and dipping can bring. Hey, I used to love it when a grownup would lift me up and let me "play airplane" by swinging me in a wide circle.

So, here goes.

Jennifer is taller now

than the artificial Christmas tree

I sold at a yard sale in July,

and Rachel has a sweet voice

she uses in long conversations

that only she can understand.

As for Sarah, she is small,

barely begun, a life unexplored,

with wide eyes and a serious stare.

This is her first Christmas here

on Earth, but the only gifts I have

for her are love and hugs and laughs

and maybe dancing around

the kitchen, holding her in my arms,

making up the music as we

twirl and step and bump into

the fridge then swing 'round and start again

in a family tradition

begun when Jennifer first

was small and loved to dance to silly

tunes and giggle and call for more.

Rachel, too, still likes to dance,

but she hops on her own sturdy feet

and runs in circles through the house

or down the hall, chattering,

screaming in false fright then in laughter,

a merry whirlwind that rarely

pauses, but sometimes snuggles

close, blanket-wrapped like a babushka.

Jenn, taller than the Christmas tree,

reads books, writes poems, her words

dancing though her feet so rarely do.

Yet we dance however we may--

it's Christmas-time with family,

the warmest time, the coldest day.

c. December 2010, KB