NaPoWriMo 3 – Elegy for a Holiday

by krstaten

Even in April, here,
we are mourning Christmas–
your Christmas, holiday
hinged on a fire hazard.

The buzz of too many strings
of lights on exposed wires,
dangling along the walls and hallways
of this improvised home.

You built this, with your broken
carpenter hands, and now it, too,
has seen the lights go out. Your hands
left behind these doorless rooms,

all the projects with the wires
exposed, all the haphazard comforts,
colored lights flickering in laughter,
or in spirit, or in perpetual wait.

***

Today’s NaPoWriMo.net prompt was to write an elegy, but make it centered around something specific or unusual about the person or thing it’s about. We lost my father-in-law a couple years ago, and the thing we miss most about him are his Christmases–too many decorations, too many lights, none of them put up entirely safely.

My first poetry recommendation: “Revolutionaries, 1929” by Adam Kirsch

My recommendation of a fellow NaPoWriMo participant’s poem for this prompt: “Elegy for my Father” by Vijaya Sundaram