I have never fully identified with the phrase

“All I want for Christmas is you.”

Even when I reveled in the throes of infatuation,

and glimmers of love

I always felt opposed to sing-song words.

For one,

There seems to indeed be no way to utter this line

without the very air dripping in clichés

and chick flick dialogue

For two,

it calls forth the idea of possession.

I had the misfortune of finding

the exemplification of this

on a poster in the back of a video store

was I was eight

a blond clad only in a red bow in front of a Christmas tree

burned into my retina

Since I desire no bleached blond woman

I have determined I never could want a person,

as a present.

But honesty,

I most condemn the saying with the thought,

‘Get a guy and lose out on a Wii? Pssh. I think not.’

But now my heart is finally held

with gentle, caring hands

a hour and a half away

(without traffic which is, quite frankly, uncommon)

With the colored lights flickering,

and bits of brightly wrapped boxes surrounding the tree,

I image him holding my hand

and breathing in the scent of evergreen.

I wonder what he would look like,

with colored lights playing off his skin,

how brightly wrapped boxes would look in his hands.

All I want I want for Christmas. . .

is not you.

I still do not wish to see you in bow.

And I still want the damn Wii,

but I wouldn’t mind you by my side,

lights flickering off the Christmas tree.