Midwinter

Teddy anonymous will have his eyes replaced tomorrow

with baby-proof stitches. Christmas takes an awful lot
out of everything, but my sewing machine is repaired and
snow on the telly counts for more than the imaginings

we usually make do with. The cat was sick yesterday
but he missed the carpet; there is a guinea pig losing weight
back north; I am shedding pieces as we speak;
steadying images as they rush through my head.

The tree this year is the greenest green
and the lights, like berries, catch the pine cones just right.
It has taken these years for me to see what you were getting at
when you bought so many of those. It has been dark for hours

but those cones still sparkle and the green of the tree, it is relentless.