Behold!

Plump turkey

Garlic stuffing

Chicken soup

Roast potatoes

Creamed peas

Fruit punch

Wassail yourself away on this frosty night

The warm fire of nostalgia burning inside

Wrap yourself in a gossamer mistletoe cloak

Paint the walls with your fairytale dreams:

Chimerical fancies of dolls, of pixies, of cats

Of lush chaparrals, of majestic chateaux

Of a similar cold place, a year ago…

Chilly winds

Red cheeks

Sparkling eyes

Warm coats

Laughter and joy.

Too pretty, too perfect.

Twee.

That’s what memories are.

You grow to forget – push away, reject –

The gauche faux pas, those awkward times

When you’ve felt so embarrassed you could die

You block these out with your rose-tinted glasses.

You look at the photos and all the smiles

The twinkle of the shards, not the broken glass

They fashion a yen, an ache to return

And you step, as though blind, forward –

Into a cave with jagged walls that pierce.

You dream

Of long-distance calls to once-made friends

(Who still remember you, no doubt.)

Any niggling little seed of doubt:

Be gone!

And you return to the pleasant castles in the air

Weaving the magic of a Midsummer’s Day

Not caring that it is now snowing palely outside.

Magic…

Magic

Poof.