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Sunday, December 20, 2015

Anniversary 2015

There's no better day on the calendar than this one. It started well before 1970, but that's the time when we started counting, married at halftime of the Packer game.
Anniversary 2015
We’ve done it again, another great year,
making it happily to forty-five,
we go on fabulously, gloriously,
loving and sharing, my how we thrive.
Oh, maybe we’re not quite so strong,
what with knees, stomachs and eyes,
the words we too often bandy,
but given we’ve used our bodies for so very long,
how amazing it is we’re still such arm candy,
There’s no doubt,
it simply can not be denied,
whether upright or not,
we’ll always have each other’s side.
Just the thought of us
forever provides me a thrill.
It’s always been so, and
I know it always will.
We’re older, of course, so it’s
a different type of pleasure,
a more comfortable feeling,
one we can longer treasure.
(and isn’t that beyond measure.)

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Blue Mirror


She asked about the blue mirror we
had moved a few times but never
used, so I told her the story of how,
from the time I was four or five,
my mother would put it on the four
by five cedar chest we used as a
table, and at Christmas time, we'd
put snow and little people on it to
make a festive scene.
I'm 70 now, and through the years,
a lot of stuff has disappeared, like
lamps and photos and baseball cards, and
people, too. I've lost dogs and cats, some
car keys, the home I grew up in, even
my mother, who died suddenly one
September, and we didn't have Christmas
after that for a long time, what with
sadness, and later, war, for me.
I never lost that blue mirror, though.
Then I met her, and I had very little
stuff, but I had her, and that was enough
for me. Her family was big on Christmas,
and, after we returned from our December
honeymoon, her baby sister put the
ornaments on their tree, the ones made with
a glitter and a glue stick, the ones with
everybody's names on them, and we were
the last ones to go up, smack dab in the
center front, to much oohing, ahing and smiling.
My dad was there, our first Christmas in
forever. It was cold, really cold, but
our hearts melted.
So, the blue mirror, remember? After
we moved to a town with lots of folks,
one where we could have visitors, we
started to decorate excessively. Too much
was still not enough, with wreaths and
themed trees and garland and such. she
said we should bring out the blue mirror and
make a scene, so we went looking for
fake snow and little trees and people
Then Department 56 happened,
and a train set happened,
and more Department 56 happened,
and I built display tables and drilled holes
and did dangerous, overloaded wiring
and it was big and grand and good,
and all of our friends loved it,
and more Department 56 happened,
and a storage locker to hold it all happened.
I think I mentioned that I'm 70 now,
those boxes and tables got heavier,
that wiring got more painful to connect,.
we've lost a few more people,
there's this talk about voluntary simplicity.
Still have that blue mirror, though.
I think soon we'll start a new tradition,
borrow from the past, bring out the older,
garage sale the newer.
But, then, there's the crazy
Krinkles accessories,
and all the Santa ornaments,
and the clowns
and the reindeer
and the angels
and...oh, what the heck, one more year,
and I think we can find room for
a blue mirror