When Holidays Go – A Poem by J.K. Durick

When Holidays Go
Its time is gone. Over now
We take it down, choose
Keep some, discard some
Collect, pack, begin to put
It all away for another year.
Every year the same thing
Happens. Christmas comes
Then Christmas goes. It has
All these years. Everything
Comes up from the cellar
Where we keep holidays in
The dark. They brood down
There, plan, plot. Christmases
Thanksgivings, Easters, and
St. Patricks’ and even the 4th
They’re down there waiting
Their turn, their time. So now
We’re returning Christmas to
Its boxes: tree ornaments and
Figurines, the tree into three
Pieces and strings of lights.
Christmas knows its place
And fits back into the cellar
Away now, waiting the year
To play out and be on display
Again.