Christmas Love

We would remember stories,

laugh and watch each other close

we’d wonder about each other’s

welfare in regards to our own needs.

we’d chuckle at similar stories

only because we wanted to listen

to the voices so familiar and sweet,

the laughter we knew would be there,

we could count on each other to share.

We didn’t need anyone to tell us how,

not tonight because we already knew,

we were playing with a familiar round

of cherished dreams and desires together.

We were family playing our roles,

as did our uncles and aunts years before,

now we stood with memory and nostalgia

wondered whether we had done the right thing

for those standing in our same posture

when we were kids, when we wondered

about them.

When we didn’t imagine our lives would be

anything like those ahead of us the mentors

of our values, our teachers of love and grace.

And here we are standing there together,

now.