Windows of the Heart

Lest we let emotions long gone dry – Rejoice and run amok!

When familiar chords of carols sung from the pickup bed of one old truck

Make children all of us even now as we let our windows of the heart

Pull out once more our childish things to delight in and impart

 

How Christmas evokes memories among the red and green

I contemplate and recall then the faces that I’ve seen

Loved ones’ habits, tables replete with sweetbreads, wine and herbs

Each childhood window of my heart clearly starts to emerge

 

Neighbors bustling, children wonder entering the door

Pyramids of packages – can one have hidden more?

Repeated settings, ornaments come out again each year

And mark again another time long gone yet no less dear

 

Yes, it’s winter!  That means Christmas can’t be far behind!

As my personal projector reruns visions in my mind

A neighbor’s stoop, an old-time friend, the smells of familiar dishes

Classics all, yet each time brings yet another round of wishes

 

Tradition that instills again a seasonal desire for a fresh-scented evergreen wreath

Slippery streets driving home at night, street décor hanging just beneath

Power lines wishing a very “Merry Christmas!” in a weathered sort of way,

The garland barely hanging on, the banners whip and sway

 

My Christmas spirit cannot start, nor can miles and two score dim

A watchful angel hung above, some stockings for added mirth

The prayers that the next generation might know Him

God’s Only Son made Man, and Celebrate His Birth!