Second Day of Christmas

(Boxing Day)

 

Boxing Day

I heard it was British

And in a loosely associated way

Thought maybe it involved

Kangaroos, which

I had seen boxing in cartoons

 

I gather now

The boxes have to do with gifts

Since this is the day the British

Present each other with, well, presents

 

I guess for them it is as well

The second day of Christmas

Two turtledoves

I’m not sure when the Yule log is lit

Yesterday?  The first?  The sixth of January,

Twelfth Night?

The first day when it’s cold?

 

And mummers,

Strangely costumed people—

Who became carolers

Or was it the carolers who transformed?

I’ve seen the costumes

There is a parade in Philadelphia

Some are ridiculous

Some are the occult totemized

What’s going on?

 

These are my people

The English and the Irish

The Scots and the Welsh

They started coming here

In the fifteenth century

Through to a couple of generations ago

Did they want to get away from

All that?  Or

Was it their own change

In what they knew to have?

 

I was a WASP

I am from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Ohio

With a brief adventure in

California

I am too old for young adventures now

Maybe one more expedition with

The older soldiers of Ulysses

By way of Tennyson

 

Maybe my gift today will be

A little understanding

Where I was

Who I am

Who might I be

As I am

For you

 

C L Couch

 

 

By Peretz Partensky from San Francisco, USA – White Doves at the Blue Mosque, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24568193

 

Advertisement